Doctors and Patients Part 2
by Sergeant Duck
Summary: Original Doctors and Patients story was getting huge so I opened a new one. All recognizable characters property of HasTak. Post movie/G-1...sort of. Slashyness so M rating.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 22 – New Stuff**

"OK, on your back."

Joe frowned but did as she was told and rolled over on the repair berth. Her back blades could rotate to sit flush against her back unlike door wings making it easier to lay supine, but it was still a little uncomfortable. "How much longer is this check up going to take?"

"Until I say so, now sit still."

Joe grinned and gave Ratchet a light kick in the aft as he walked to the end of the berth.

The CMO spun around giving Joe an admonishing look. "Don't make me dig out the restraints."

"Kinky."

"Joe, I'm trying to work here."

"Uh huh, you're calling what you did to my back blades awhile ago job related?"

Ratchet's lips twitched as he struggled to keep from smiling. "I was testing their sensory capabilities."

Joe sat up with an indignant squawk. "You are such a liar!"

"Sit. Still." Joe muttered then laid back down as the CMO continued to examine her systems. "Well that will be useful."

"What?"

Ratchet held up Joe's left hand and rotated it so she could see her palm. "See this?" He pointed to a dark panel that covered a portion of her forearm and wrist. "This is used to shape and hold energy in the form of a blade. Optimus has one but on a much larger scale. Go ahead and redirect some energy into this area."

Joe watched with wide optics as a blade made of orange light deployed from the panel. "It's a surgical knife isn't it?" she exclaimed as she noted the size and angled shape of the glowing blade.

"Very astute" Ratchet replied with a smile as the blade retracted. He set Joe's arm down and made a note on his datapad. He conducted a few more scans then set his datapad down and told Joe she was free to move about. The femme jumped off the repair berth and unfolded her back blades to their full length with a sigh of relief. Ratchet waited until the helicopter blades were doubled back on themselves to a more reasonable length before walking up behind Joe and wrapping his arms around her.

Joe shuttered her optics and rested the back of her head against Ratchet's shoulder as the CMO began nuzzling her neck. "What happened to work you hypocrite?"

"The check up is done. It would have been done a lot earlier if you had been a more cooperative patient you stubborn aft."

Joe shivered as Ratchet's mouth moved along her neck cables. "Not my fault your bedside manner sucks slag. So am I healthy?"

Ratchet pulled back slightly chuckling. "Actually you are a bit of an enigma. Your body is cybertronian but you have several human traits mixed in; like your green optics for example."

"So I'm a freak. Fun stuff."

"I was going to say unique, but if you wish to be a freak I won't argue."

Joe turned her head to meet Ratchet's optics. "So freaky stuff aside, am I cleared for duty?"

Ratchet placed a gentle kiss on Joe's lips. "I don't see why not." He reached up with one hand and traced his fingers across the new autobot symbol decorating Joe's cockpit. "Thank you."

"For what? Signing up with the Autobots?"

"For being a part of my life."

Joe spun in Ratchet's arms to face him. "Sentimental glitch" she teased as she caressed his cheek.

"Well now, what pray tell do we have here?" Wheeljack shook his head as Ratchet and Joe jumped and separated themselves. He walked the rest of the way into the med bay and leaned against the door frame with arms folded across his chest. "If that was a routine medical exam then I need to hit the books again 'cause apparently I've been doing it all wrong."

"Well it's been fun guys but I think I'm going to go hunt down Powerglide and see if I can learn a few new aerial maneuvers." Joe walked calmly to the doors and paused abreast of Wheeljack. She made a sudden move towards the Lancia making him flinch back with hands raised. Joe nodded with a satisfied grin. "Now who's the chicken shit?" She patted the engineer gently on the head then left the med bay.

Wheeljack blinked then turned to regard Ratchet. "You know, she's kinda scary at times."

"Joe's ability to scare you is my top reason for loving her."

"Very funny. So judging from the fact that I walked in on you two damn near welded together I'm assuming things are going well?" He walked over to the CMO and picked up the datapad Ratchet had been working on earlier.

"Better than well" Ratchet replied with a smile. "I haven't felt like this since my academy days." He paused for a moment "scratch that, I've never felt like this before."

Wheeljack chuckled then cut off as he read something on the datapad. "_Human_ pulse?"

"I was wondering when you were going to catch that. Her body is mostly cybertronian but I keep finding little human characteristics. Her spark pulsing with a human beat instead of a cybertronian one is the latest trait I've uncovered."

"Neat."

"And no that does not mean you get to experiment on her."

"You are no fun."

"I just hope that none of these oddities causes any issues."

"Meh, I'm sure she'll be fine." Wheeljack placed the datapad down and looked at Ratchet. "To be honest I'm more concerned on how you plan to break this to the crew."

"I don't follow. What does Joe's human…"

"Not that ya lugnut. I'm referring to the fact that the new pretty femme on the roster is already taken…by her mentor, who also happens to be in her direct chain of command."

"Oh. That. Well I'm pretty sure Jazz is already onto us. That fragger is watching us like his own personal soap opera. Optimus and Prowl on the other hand…those are the two I'm worried about. I'll just have to deal with that when the time comes."

Both mechs turned their attention to the med bay doors as they slammed open to admit a rather pissed off looking Powerglide.

"That crazy sadistic femme!" the red aircraft shouted. "Look what she did!"

Wheeljack's voice indicators flashed in surprise as the pilot indicated his right wing, which was bent at a ninety degree angle. "What happened?"

Powerglide snorted as he pulled himself onto a repair berth. "That twisted she-bot asked me to teach her some flyin' moves, so nice guy that I am, agreed. Then outta nowhere she grabs hold of my wing and almost rips the fraggin' thing off!"

"You didn't by chance provoke her in anyway did you?" Ratchet asked in a quiet voice as he inspected the pilot's wing.

Wheeljack took a step back from the other two mechs. He was all too familiar with that dangerous tone. If Powerglide continued on his current path Ratchet was going to finish what Joe started.

"Totally unprovoked! I'm tellin' ya, she's outta her fraggin' processor!"

Wheeljack took another step back and placed his hands over his audios.

"Are you done?" Ratchet inquired.

"Done?! No I'm…" Powerglide's response cut off as Ratchet slammed a wrench down on the repair berth.

"_You_…are yelling at _me…_in _my_ med bay?"

"But…"

"_**In my med bay?!**_" Ratchet roared.

"Ratchet please…"

"If you have problems with my apprentice then bring it to my attention in a professional manner, not bitch at me like an arrogant, aft headed, rusting out piece of Pit spawned slag!"

"Ratchet I'm…"

**WHAM!!**

"And don't slam my med bay doors!"

Wheeljack removed his hands from his audios and walked up to Ratchet. "If only they'd learn." He glanced down at the offline pilot now sporting a wrench sized dent upside his head and rested a hand on the damaged wing. "So what do you suppose he did to set Joe off?"

"Knowing this cocky flyboy? I'm not sure I want to know." Ratchet cycled his vents and started to repair Powerglide's wing. Wheeljack stuck around keeping him company until the engineer wandered off to get errands done before his own shift in the med bay. The rest of the shift seemed to crawl at a snail's pace and Ratchet found himself checking his internal chronometer every few minutes. It wasn't that he was eager to be with Joe, he simply wanted to find out what happened with Powerglide; really. Ratchet even repaired the dent in the pilot's head just to pass the time. When Wheeljack finally returned to take over the med bay and it's lone (and still unconscious) patient he bolted out the door.

Ratchet practically ran from the med bay to Joe's new quarters located down the hall from his own. He rapped a knuckle on her door and tried to assume an irritated expression. Joe answered the door and raised an optic ridge when Ratchet went into his rehearsed speech. "So there I was, pulling my shift in the med bay like normal when guess who walked in? Powerglide; and with a busted up wing of all things. Now you're gonna love this. Want to know how he obtained said injury?"

"I can imagine what he told you. Now if you'd like, you can continue on with this wonderful sarcastic story telling session of yours from the hallway, which by the way is as close as you're getting to me; _or_ you can step into my room and listen to my side of the story."

Ratchet's chin hit his chest as he lowered his head in mock shame. He fought to keep from laughing as he replied with a "yes ma'am" and entered Joe's room.

Joe shook her head as she shut the door behind the medic. "You can be such an aft at times."

Ratchet grabbed Joe by the waist and pulled her in for a fierce kiss. "An aft am I?" he growled as he broke the kiss.

Joe leaned heavily against the CMO as she tried to catch her breath. "Did I say that?"

"Yes, you did."

"My mistake, what I really meant to say is that you _have_ a nice aft."

"That's better" Ratchet chuckled. "So what did the airhead do to get you all riled up?"

Joe smirked and pulled away to flop down in her chair with a pout. "I asked if he'd mind teaching me a couple of aerial maneuvers. He showed me a few air moves and then tried to show me some _other_ moves. I simply let him know that I wasn't interested."

"That slagger. I should've bent his other wing so it matched."

"I think he's learned his lesson. I actually hope he tells everyone what happened so they don't bother with trying. The only mech I'm interested in is standing in my room…with a really dumb looking proud boyfriend smile I might add.

"Why thank you; I think."

Joe grinned as she got out of her chair and made her way back to Ratchet. "Wanna see what I learned?"

"That depends, did Powerglide teach it to you?"

"No!" Joe laughed. "'Jack did."

"What?"

"He stopped by on his way to his shift and said you could use some…stress relief." Joe put her hands on Ratchet's shoulders and slid her digits down the outsides of his arms and ended by holding his fingers. The movement was slow, deliberate, and activated every single node on the way down. Ratchet cried out loudly as he fell to the floor taking Joe with him. Joe looked into Ratchet's optics from where she lay sprawled on top of him. "Oh frag! I'm so sorry! Are you ok?"

"Yes" Ratchet replied weakly.

"Too much?"

"I'll let you know when I can see straight again."

"Want me to stop?"

"Frag no!" Ratchet knew he probably looked and sounded stupid at that moment but didn't care. All the cares in the world melted away as the femme above him expressed her love for him in the best of ways.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 23 - **

Wheeljack plastered himself against the wall as a mud caked Joe ran by nearly running him over.

"If you see Ratchet you never saw me, ok?" Joe called back over her shoulder as she ran around a corner further down the hallway.

Wheeljack blinked in confusion then continued down hall. A moment later Ratchet came barreling down the hall from the same direction Joe had just run from. This time however, Wheeljack failed to dodge in time and the two mechs collided and fell to the ground. Wheeljack sat up rubbing his head checking it for dents. "For cryin' out loud Ratchet, don't I spend enough time in the med bay as it is without you…" he cut off as the CMO sat up looking like he was going to kill something. "Ok, if you wanna be mad about falling on your aft please take into consideration that it was _you_ who ran into _me_."

Ratchet stood with a groan and offered a hand to Wheeljack helping the engineer stand up. "You? I'm not mad at you."

"Oh, my favorite game. Let's see what's pissing off the Hatchet this time? Once upon a time my first guess would have been the twins but they seem to be sharing the brunt of your anger these days with a certain femme.

"Do you know what she's done this time?"

"Enlighten me."

"Come on, I have a good idea where she's going." Wheeljack fell in beside him as he strode down the hallway. "According to the roster Joe is slated to go on a mission."

"Yeah, I saw that. What's the problem?"

"The problem is catching her. I'm going to weld her blades together so she can't go."

"I really don't see why you're getting so worked up over this. She's been working as a medic in training in the med bay ever since signing up as an Autobot. That's three months you had her all to yourself. Longer if you include the time she put in when she was human. Ya gotta remember that she _is_ an Autobot now, so if Prime wants to send her on a quick good will mission you just gotta suck it up and…"

"_Quick_ good will mission?" Ratchet glared at Wheeljack. "Quick is _not_ three weeks long 'Jack. Did you by chance notice that two of our special ops are also scheduled for this so called good will mission? I swear to Primus if I find out Jazz and Mirage are dragging Joe out on one of their insane suicidal missions I'm going to reprogram all of them into toaster ovens! Joe was designed by the Allspark to be a medic, _not_ special ops."

"I feel for ya Ratch, really I do, but Joe's ability to fly makes her more than _just_ a medic. I'm sure that on the _highly_ unlikely chance Joe really is going on a special ops mission Prowl will take into consideration that she is not special ops and that her part in the…"

"Wait a click. Prowl? Prowl is not special ops. Whoever said anything about Prowl?"

"Did I say Prowl? I meant…"

Ratchet stopped and slowly looked at Wheeljack. "You know something."

Wheeljack took a step back as a dangerous gleam entered Ratchet's optics. "Now Ratch, calm down."

Ratchet quickly reached out and grabbed Wheeljack by one of his voice indicators. "Talk!"

Wheeljack squirmed as Ratchet gave his voice indicator a squeeze. "Oh come on! You know I hate it when you do this!" Ratchet squeezed a little harder forcing him to squeak. "Alright! Alright! Let go already!" Ratchet released his grip and Wheeljack took another stepped back out of reach just to be on the safe side. "Joe's part in the mission is just transportation, extrication, and maybe, _maybe_ back up in case things go screwy. But that's it, I swear."

"And what's your part in this?"

"It's Jazz and Mirage that Joe will be lifting. They have fairly small frames but that's still a decent amount of weight for her. I'm upgrading her engines and reinforcing her propellers to be able to handle it." Ratchet rubbed a hand over his face and began walking away. Wheeljack jogged after the CMO and fell in beside him again. "They were going to tell you today seeing as how you're gonna have to fit them with red optics."

"She's dressing up like a fragging 'con for this? Transportation my aft! I can't believe they are using my apprentice for this."

"Are you mad because your apprentice is going on a special ops mission or because your girlfriend is?"

Ratchet spun to face his friend and shoved a finger in his face. "Watch yourself Jack" he growled. He turned back down the hallway and continued his search for Joe. Wheeljack walked along with him but remained quiet. Ratchet turned into the wash racks and pointed to the only visible occupants. "You and you, where is she?!"

Mirage took one look at Ratchet's pissed off expression and activated his cloaking device. Jazz straightened from where he was washing off mud from his chassis and blinked his visor innocently. "Who?"

"You know damned well who I'm talking about you fragger!" Ratchet snapped. A single drop of mud dripped onto his shoulder. He looked at the dark spot in surprise then looked up. Joe smiled nervously back down at him from where she was clinging to the ceiling. Jazz made good of the distraction and bolted out of the room. Splashes in the same direction told Ratchet that Mirage had also made a run for it.

Wheeljack cleared his throat. "Ya know I think I'll just catch up with you two later. Good luck Joe!"

Ratchet ignored his best friend's hasty retreat as he frowned at the upside down femme. He crooked a finger at her in a _get your aft down here or else_ gesture.

Joe shook her head. "Exactly how stupid do you think I am?"

"If you volunteered for a special ops mission; very stupid."

"Ratchet, I know you're upset but…"

"Upset? Oh I am beyond upset. You are a medic, not special ops!"

Being well practiced with Ratchet's little temper tantrums by now Joe turned the volume down on her audios and let him rant. After several minutes a pained expression on Ratchet's face plates made Joe turn the volume back up.

"Please tell me you didn't choose this as your secondary programming."

Joe wilted at Ratchet's look and dropped down to the floor. She walked over to the shower Jazz left running and began to wash the mud off her chassis. "I was a medic as a human, I was designed to be a medic by the Allspark, and even _without_ the Allspark's help I'd still _choose_ to be a medic. I have no intention of making special ops any part of my programming. If I didn't think lives could be lost without my help I wouldn't do the mission." Joe rested her forehead against the tiled wall and let the water stream pour down over her shoulders. "We did some practice runs today and they all went smoothly even in the rain and mud. Prowl and I worked out all the problems in the initial planning stages."

"You and _Prowl_?"

"Black and white Datsun police car, second in command, yet another member of the boomerang head club…"

"Yes, I know who the mech is smart aft."

"Prowl sat me down for a chat about a month ago or so saying that my little _schemes _in the past were very inventive. One thing led to another and the next thing I know I'm helping Mr. Spock _strategize_." Joe turned the water off and walked over to where Ratchet was standing. "Ok, I can see that we are going to have to talk this out some more. Can we at least move this to one of our rooms? Or did you need to take a shower too?"

Ratchet narrowed his optics. "Fine. My Quarters." He stepped out of the wash racks and led the way to his quarters. Once they arrived he made sure the halls were clear then let Joe inside. She took a seat on his berth and patiently waited as he stepped inside and sat down heavily in his chair. He rested his forearms on his legs and looked down at the ground. "I don't want you to go."

Joe got up off the berth and kneeled in front of Ratchet taking his hands in her own. "Cold as this may sound, we're at war; the luxury of doing what we want is often overshadowed by what needs to be done." She raised a hand to caress Ratchet's face plates and was pleased to see him shutter his optics and rock his cheek into the touch.

Ratchet unshuttered his optics and looked at Joe. Her green optics always managed to make his spark do flips, but this time he felt cold as he could almost see the red optics she'd have to wear for the mission. "I've been fighting in this war almost my entire life. I'm tired of giving up what I want." Joe smiled at him sadly then raised up to gently kiss him. The kiss was meant to be innocent but it quickly turned into something more as each of them sought comfort in the other. Ratchet knew he wouldn't be able to stop Joe from going on this mission. Once the stubborn femme set her processor on something it was nearly impossible to deter her. Right now he just wanted to be with his lover where he knew she was safe, and the only worry on their minds was whether his chair could support both their weight or not as he pulled her up onto his lap.

Ratchet ran his hands up two of Joe's back blades causing her to arch backwards with a cry. Primus but he loved it when she did that. He pulled her back tightly against his chassis and ran his glossa along the window seams of her cockpit. He let out a moan as Joe managed to regain some of her bearings and wriggled her fingers under the wheels at the back of his shoulders. Their hands wandered over each other's frames seeking out seams and sensitive wiring drawing moans and whimpers. Both of them got the idea to activate nodes in the other at the same time resulting in the two of them falling out of the chair to the floor. Ratchet pressed his greater weight against Joe's frame beneath him and captured her lips in a fiercely passionate kiss. "Do you love me?" he breathed against her lips once he broke the kiss.

"With all of my once human heart now turned spark" Joe replied breathlessly.

"If you insist on going on this mission I want you to do something for me."

"Anything."

"Share my spark."

Joe blinked up at him in surprise. "You mean _bond_?"

Ratchet chuckled and caressed Joe's cheek. "Spark sharing is a step down from bonding. I want you to see why I worry about you the way I do. I want you to see how I really feel. Please?"

Joe cocked her head slightly as she considered the proposal. "Alright." Ratchet slid his chest plates aside to expose his spark. Joe mimicked his action and moved her own chest plates apart. Ratchet watched her spark pulse with it's unique human beat with a look of awe then leaned down to kiss her. The kiss was gentle but somehow managed to contain more passion, more feeling than anything Joe had ever experienced before; and then their sparks touched.

A wild surge of energy flowed between the two lovers connecting them through something more than just mere energy. Unlike interfacing, there was no physical link between them as their sparks and minds became one. Emotions, thoughts, fears, sensations, and more swirled around them in a blissful sea. At the core of it all was the shared love that each felt for the other. They wrapped themselves up in it desperately trying to draw in as much of it as possible.

An eternity could have passed or a handful of seconds as far as either of them knew before their sparks finally retreated back into their respective chambers. Ratchet regained consciousness first and had to force himself to move again. Sitting up he gently pulled Joe into his arms and carried her over to his berth. Joe's optics flickered briefly as Ratchet laid her on the berth and settled in beside her. He ran a hand over the pointed red plates covering her head in his favored _hair smoothing_ gesture and smiled as the femme unconsciously cuddled deeper into his side. He kissed the diamond crest on her forehead then laid his head down beside hers. Tomorrow he would worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow could wait.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 24 – Send Off**

Ratchet stared up at his ceiling and listened to the soft pings of cooling metal as he came down from his most recent overload. He felt Joe stretch beside him and smiled at her when she rested her chin on his chest.

"I have a question."

"Yes, that was an amazing interface." Ratchet chuckled as Joe smacked him lightly upside his helm.

"Smart aft, I'm serious."

"Alright then, ask away."

"How many others have you interfaced with?"

Ratchet raised his head to look at Joe in shock. "Are you _sure_ you're being serious?"

"Still waiting on an answer" Joe sang.

"You have to understand that I've been around for a very long time."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gimme a number."

"I can't, I've lost count."

"Slut."

"Says the femme who jumped me the second I walked through the door last night."

"Fair enough." Joe's expression turned serious again. "How many others have you shared your spark with?"

Ratchet reached up with one hand and caressed Joe's cheek. "You are the only one."

Joe kissed Ratchet's fingers drawing a small whimper from the CMO. "Why am I the only one?"

Ratchet sat up and pulled Joe into his arms. He placed a hand on her cockpit directly over her spark chamber and gently stroked the protective covering. "You are the only one I've felt this strongly for."

"So spark sharing is a pretty big deal then?"

"You've been thinking about this since our sparks first touched a few nights ago haven't you?"

"I was trying to figure out what the equivalent would be on the human side."

"I don't think there is an equivalent. There are those who would say we are moving too fast though. Especially since spark sharing often leads to an eventual bond."

Joe cycled her vents and cuddled closer into Ratchet's torso. "I have to go soon. I need to meet with the others in Wheeljack's lab in fifteen minutes to get my make up on. Besides, it's a good idea for me to leave before the day shift wakes up and sees your apprentice stepping out of your quarters first thing in the morning."

Ratchet shuttered his optics as Joe brought up two very sensitive topics. He hated having to keep their relationship a secret; and then there was the mission. His arms tightened around her as if doing so would keep her there with him. "I will see you in a couple of hours for your optic placement. Behave for 'Jack now. You know how us old bots get excited about getting to work on pretty young femmes."

Joe laughed as she untangled herself from Ratchet's arms and got off the berth. She leaned down and brushed a quick kiss across Ratchet's lips. "I'll see you later lover."

Ratchet watched the door shut behind Joe as she left his quarters to get ready for her mission. He crossed a forearm over his optics and let his processor wander. Joe would be gone on this special ops mission for three weeks. He had gone countless years without that femme; surely he could handle three weeks. He remained that way until his internal chronometer informed him that he needed to get up. He grimaced and stood up cursing as lack of a decent recharge was felt throughout his frame. He left his quarters and walked the short distance to the med bay. Once there he picked up the box he had left there before his previous shift ended and waited.

The others filed into the med bay a short time later led by Optimus Prime, Prowl, and Wheeljack. The three _Decepticons_ that trailed behind them made Ratchet blink and shake his head in wonder. He barely recognized the three mission goers. Mirage was painted a dull grey and his once smooth frame was now full of sharp angles. Jazz now sported a face mask and was painted dark green. Ratchet figured the saboteur, with his new box like shape, would look a little like a short green Soundwave once his red visor was in place. Last but not least Joe sauntered in flaunting jet black painted armor. Her center of gravity seemed a little off due to her new bulky engine upgrades and reinforced back blades but she seemed to be adapting quickly. She flashed him an evil grin and waved a sharp clawed hand. She looked dangerous, menacing, and more than a little exotic. Ratchet swallowed at the sight and strode over to Wheeljack. "You are evil 'Jack" he whispered.

"I've been accused of worse" Wheeljack whispered back. "You look like slag by the way. When was the time you got in some recharge?"

Ratchet flicked one of the engineer's voice indicators making the Lancia flinch and mutter angrily. Ratchet approached Mirage first and pulled a pair of customized crystal red optics from the box he carried. He skillfully replaced the ex aristocrat's royal blue optics with the new blood red ones then moved on to Jazz. Ratchet glanced around at the others present and opted with placing the red visor in the Lieutenant's hands so he could do the replacement himself. Jazz gave him an appreciative look then turned around to replace the visor out of view of the others. The mech had his reasons for not wanting to display his optics to the world and Ratchet was sure as the Pit not going to disrespect his wishes. He finally reached the moment he had been dreading as he stood before Joe. He carefully removed Joe's emerald green lenses and fit the bright red ones into position. He traced his thumb under her left optic and let the rest of his fingers come to rest along her jaw.

"What are you doing?" Joe whispered fiercely.

Ratchet looked up at the surrounding mechs and came to a decision. He grinned at Wheeljack and Jazz who were looking at him as if he had gone crazy. Joe's red optics widened as she realized what Ratchet was thinking.

"Don't you even think about…"

"To the Pit with them" Ratchet replied then pulled Joe in for a passionate kiss. Joe struggled a moment leaving a few scrapes on the CMO's arms with her new clawed digits before giving up and melting into the kiss. When Ratchet finally pulled back the femme was holding onto him to keep from falling over. Ratchet looked back up at the other Autobots and shrugged. "What can I say? I've always wanted to do that to a Decepticon."

Jazz raised his hands with a whoop. "Anyone else wanna kiss a 'Con cause I am willin' to volunteer!" Prowl raised an optic ridge at the saboteur and shook his head.

Optimus looked over at his second in command in amusement. He cleared his throat and turned his attention back to Ratchet. "Assuming you are done fulfilling your Decepticon fantasy I am sure you won't object if we get these three on their way? We are on a tight timeframe."

Ratchet chuckled as Joe followed the other two to the door looking absolutely mortified. His good humor faded as she left for her three week mission. Wheeljack stepped up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You've got some serious thrill issues pullin' a stunt like that in front of the big guy like that. You do realize that she's gonna get some serious payback on your aft when she gets back don't you?"

"Of course. She now has one more reason to make every effort to make it back home in one piece."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 25 – Programming**

"Three weeks she says. Don't worry Ratchet, it's only three weeks. Fraggin glitched out, rusted, computer virus infected, slag!"

"So tell me how you really feel" Wheeljack replied dryly as he looked up at the CMO. "Special ops missions rarely follow through with their estimated time lines Ratch. You heard what Prowl said the other day. They likely judged it to be too risky to just up an leave the 'Con nest at the scheduled time, so they'll probably try to disappear during the confusion of a battle. Speaking of which, would you mind keeping your processor on the task at hand?"

A nearby explosion rained dirt and rocks over them as if to emphasize the Lancia's words. Ratchet leaned over Tracks' offline frame to protect the exposed battle wound. He glared down at the gaping hole in the mech's abdomen and plucked a piece of shrapnel out that had landed inside. "I know, I know, it's just that we are now currently _in_ a battle and I haven't seen _any_ of them."

Wheeljack grunted in reply and clamped off another leak he had found inside the wound. "Have some faith, they'll show up."

Ratchet and Wheeljack continued to work on Tracks' wounds until they had him stable enough to move. Sideswipe was called over to help move the unconscious mech out of the area when the screeching of seeker engines pulled their optics skywards. "Get down!" Sideswipe shouted as he raised his rifle to fire at Skywarp. The Decepticon easily dodged his shots and lined up for a missile run on the Autobot targets below.

Ratchet placed himself between the attacker and Tracks refusing to abandon his patient. A dark blur dove out of the sky above the seeker and transformed at the last second to slam feet first into the jet just behind his cockpit. Ratchet watched in horror as Joe dug her claws into Skywarp's frame and held on tight as the seeker attempted to shake the femme off.

"Hey Sideswipe! Jet judo right?!" Joe yelled as she rode the Decepticon. She yodeled as Skywarp performed a barrel roll in another attempt to dislodge his passenger.

Sideswipe blinked in surprise then raised both hands high above his head and let out a war whoop. "Ride em cowgirl!"

"Don't encourage her you fragger!" Ratchet snapped then returned his optics to the fight above. Skywarp did his best to ditch Joe from his frame executing a variety of aerial maneuvers that would of made Ratchet sick to his fuel tanks if their positions had been reversed. The seeker finally got fed up and transformed sending the two plummeting to the ground wrestling as they fell. They split apart just shy of hitting the ground and transformed into their respective alt modes to climb back into the sky. "Joe! Let him go! Get your aft down here, _now_! Damnit femme, don't make me shoot you down myself!!" Ratchet growled in frustration as Joe ignored him and matched Skywarp's transformation meeting the Decepticon again in another freefall wrestling match. This time however, Joe changed her tactics and deployed her energon blade driving it deep into the seeker's cockpit. Skywarp screamed and wrapped his arms around her in a tight bearhug as they fell.

"If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!" Skywarp shrieked.

Ratchet shouted as he watched the two crash into some nearby woods. "Jack! Take Sideswipe and get Tracks out of here! I'm going after Joe!" He grabbed Sideswipe's rifle and ran into the woods. He was beginning to panic when he suddenly came across several trees cut off near their tops and slanting sharply at an angle. He followed the angles carefully and came upon a sight that he'd seen before. Joe had managed to remove Skywarp's heavily damaged chest plate and was desperately trying to revive the fallen seeker. It was obvious that the Decepticon's spark had extinguished but Joe was showing no signs of giving up. "You can't help him Joe" Ratchet said quietly as he stepped out from his cover. "The other two members of his trine will have felt this. We need to leave, now." Joe sat back on her heels and winced as her left shoulder sparked sending tiny lights raining down on the dead seeker. Ratchet grunted as if hit when the scan he tried to perform on her rebounded back on him. "Where did you learn to flare your energy like that to negate a scan?" Joe rounded on him with a glare.

"Stop scanning me! Why can't you just ask how I'm doing like everyone else?!"

Ratchet cycled his vents heavily and offered Joe a hand. "For the same reason you just tried to save an enemy. We are medics. I will explain more later; but right now we need to move."

Joe accepted Ratchet's hand and let the CMO guide her through the wooded terrain. She tried to make sense of Ratchet's words as they picked their way back to safe grounds. As a medic in the Army she had been called upon to treat enemy troops on more than one occasion; but she had never felt like this before. Something from deep within her felt _off_, as if something was broken or out of alignment. A self diagnostic informed her that with the exception of her shoulder and low energon levels, she was fine. Joe was brought out of her musings when Ratchet stopped and urged her to sit down. Looking around as she sat, Joe was shocked to see that they had reached the Autobot triage area. She couldn't remember most of the journey getting there. Ratchet began to remove the armor covering her damaged shoulder to access the injury. "You have other patients to attend" she protested but Ratchet continued with his work.

"None of the injured are serious and I'd get through them faster with the assistance of my apprentice."

Joe leaned her forehead against Ratchet's chest as he replaced a severed wire in her shoulder. She didn't care who saw her affections at this point. Chances were that everyone knew about them already due to Ratchet's little _fare the well_ before she left on her mission. "Something feels wrong."

"Your primary motor functions to your arm were severed."

"Something other than my shoulder."

Ratchet looked at Joe with sympathetic optics then turned back to her shoulder. "I know."

"Ok, is there a reason you won't explain? Is this because I snapped at you for scanning me?"

"In your human world you choose your profession; as a cybertronian, your profession is already in your programming. A medic serves so that others may _live_. You can take on a defensive role to protect yourself or others; that is why you probably didn't feel anything wrong when you initially confronted Skywarp. You were protecting us. But when you continued to fight even when we were out of danger and then…" Ratchet left the sentence unfinished when he saw Joe's expression.

"I didn't mean to extinguish his spark" Joe whispered.

Ratchet closed up Joe's armor plating "try your arm." Joe hitched her shoulder and extended her arm. Ratchet kneeled down to look at her optic to optic and placed a hand along her cheek. "I should have explained this to you before. The feeling will get better once your programming rights itself. It doesn't take long. I promise."

"This is why you didn't want me to go on that mission, isn't it?"

Ratchet smiled and gently kissed her crest. "That amongst other things." He looked up as the all clear sounded and the walking wounded began trudging into the area. "Alright, do you have the energy to help me get these guys back to the med bay?"

Joe looked at Ratchet grateful that he asked this time instead of scanning her to check her energon levels. For some reason she really felt uncomfortable with scans lately. "Where ya want me to start boss?"

Together they patched up the few bots that were unable to make their way back to base unassisted and eventually ended up back at the base med bay to finish up repairs. It was late into the afternoon when Wheeljack wandered into the med bay and fixed Joe with an irritated expression. "Ratch coulda done the clean up without ya Joe. You know the others from the mission are already outta their Decepticon costumes. I'm beginning to think you wanna stay lookin' like that" the engineer teased. He shook his head when Joe looked up from the repair berth she was cleaning with dull red optics. "And here I thought Ratchet was the only medic this stubborn. When was the last time you took in some energon? You look like you're ready to fall over."

"I'll grab a cube to go when I'm done here and I'll meet you in the lab, ok?" Joe wilted as Ratchet walked up to stand next to Wheeljack and crossed his arms across his windshield. "Or I can stop what I'm doing right now and get some energon to appease the two slaggers who are likely to force it down my throat if I don't cooperate."

"She can be taught!" Wheeljack announced as if discovering a new life altering invention.

Ratchet grinned as Joe grabbed a cube of energon from the med bay dispenser and sat down on a repair berth with a pout. He walked over to her perch and tapped a finger beside her right optic. "While you're taking care of that, how's about I relieve you of those red optics?" Ratchet worked around Joe's energon cube, which he was sure she was holding up higher than normal just to annoy him, until she blinked back with her usual emerald optics. He waited until the cube was empty before leaning forward and surprising the femme with a fierce kiss. "Welcome back" he whispered once he pulled back.

"Couldn't that of waited until you were back in your own quarters? It's hard enough trying to keep the med bay sterile as it is without you two adding to the problem."

"Shut up Jack" Joe said breathlessly as she wrapped her arms around Ratchet to pull him back against her. "Don't even get me started on the cleanliness of your lab."

"Hey! My lab is clean!" Wheeljack shot back defensively. Ratchet and Joe both turned around to regard him with flat stares. "Ok maybe not clean, but it's organized." The couple blinked at him still obviously unconvinced. "Well _I_ know where everything's at and that's all that matters. Alright you know what? You can take off your own frame alterations if yer gonna make fun of my workplace!"

Ratchet chuckled and shook his head. "Calm down before you blow a gasket Jack." He looked down at Joe "you better go before takes his threat seriously; or really does blow a gasket. Either way you'd end up stuck in that outfit, and I was kind of hoping to see you back in your pretty white and red plates sometime tonight." Joe smiled up at him and brushed a quick kiss across his lips before jumping down off the berth and walking over to Wheeljack. She had the poor Lancia reduced to incoherent splutters after a final remark comparing his workplace to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Ratchet happily returned to cleaning the med bay convinced that Joe's good humor indicated her programming had completely righted itself.


	5. Chapter 5

****

*****I FINALLY DREW A PICTURE OF JOE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ASKED, CHECK FOR THE LINK ON MY BIO*****

**Chapter 26 – Strategy**

"Do I really have to do this?" Joe whined.

"Yes."

"Where does it say I have to do this in my contract?"

Ratchet glanced at his berthmate with a grin. "It's in the fine print."

"I _really_ don't want to go."

"I _really_ don't care" Ratchet whined back in imitation of Joe earning himself a smacked shoulder. "It's just a little party to celebrate our recent victory in battle and the success of the special ops mission both of which _you_ were a part of. If you don't make an appearance they will just hunt you down and drag you to the rec room anyways." Ratchet stopped before the rec room door and smiled at his pouting lover. "Now put on a big smile for the troops."

"I hate you" Joe growled through a forced smile.

Ratchet chuckled as he opened the door and shoved Joe in drawing a surprised yelp from the femme.

"Hey! The femme fatale has finally arrived!" Sideswipe shouted when he saw Joe. He ran over and shoved his cube of high grade into Ratchet's hands and threw Joe over his shoulder. "Make way for Jet Judo Jane!" he laughed as he ran back to the table where his brother waited.

Ratchet laughed as Joe glared pure death at him from where she dangled over Sideswipe's shoulder. He knew he was going to pay for this later but it was worth it. In the end his insistence that Joe show up at this gathering was more for her own good then for the troops' morale. She seemed to be recovering well from her first experience with what he called _the medic glitch_, but another distraction couldn't hurt. He took a draw from the high grade Sideswipe had left him and sighed happily.

"You've gotten yourself involved with a very spirited spark."

Ratchet nodded to Optimus Prime as the Autobot leader walked up and stood beside him. "Spirited is not a strong enough adjective for that femme."

Optimus laughed lightly and leaned up against a nearby wall. "With the exception of some of her more colorful language and her unfortunate affinity for assisting the twins with their antics, she reminds me of Elita One."

Ratchet raised an optic ridge and swirled the energon around in it's cube. "Is there enough resemblance for you to consider the suggestion I made a few weeks ago?"

"Ratchet, you are the finest Chief Medical Officer the Autobots have to offer. You are also a royal pain in the aft" Optimus sighed.

Ratchet shrugged "what can I say? I am multi talented."

"Indeed."

"She's proven herself capable and at the risk of sounding selfish, it would make my involvement with her more acceptable to the others."

"I'll make the necessary amendments and take care of the paperwork on one condition."

"And that is?"

"I find it somewhat disconcerting having an officer named _Joe_."

Ratchet had a hard time recovering from his fit of laughter combined with the high grade he was choking on. "I'll…I'll run the idea of a new designation by her but no promises." Optimus nodded with amused optics then wandered off into the crowded room. Eager to rejoin Joe he quickly sought the femme out and found her at a table with Wheeljack and the twins. He slid onto the bench she was sitting on and placed an arm around her shoulders. Before he could tell her the good news she grabbed his arm and removed it from her shoulders.

"What makes you think you can get away with that after you let Sideswipe run off with me on his shoulder like he was some sort of caveman?" The entire table blinked at her as they looked up the caveman reference on the internet.

Sunstreaker glanced between Joe and Ratchet with a raised optic ridge. "So the rumors are true then?"

Sideswipe made an awkward face and shook his head. "You sure about this Joe? I mean Ratchet is older than…" he cut off with a curse as Ratchet kicked him under the table.

"It's not polite to discuss age on this planet Sideswipe" Ratchet deadpanned as he emptied his cube of high grade. "Or on any planet for that matter."

Wheeljack watched the exchange with unparalleled amusement. "I knew there was a reason I showed up at this party tonight. You all are prime entertainment to say the least."

"Make room for the Jazzman!" Jazz laughed as he took a seat on the other side of Joe. He set down a tray of high grade cubes and passed them around. Joe frowned at her cube then slid it over to Ratchet who was all too happy to accept. "Not in the mood for a lil' overcharge kitty cat?"

Joe looked at Jazz for a moment as if unsure how to respond. She tilted her head as some music started up and grinned. "Nah, the night is still young. Actually I was thinking about dancing instead."

Jazz's visor lit up at the suggestion. "Dance?! Well hell lady, I thought you'd never ask! Let's show these old bots how to raise the roof!" He started to stand but paused in confusion when Joe shook her head.

"I'll take a rain check Jazz; I had another mech in mind tonight."

Ratchet looked at Joe with narrowed optics. "Don't even think about it Joe. I do _not_ dance."

"Good, cause I wasn't going to ask you" Joe replied as she stood and started walking away from the table.

"Exactly which mech does she think is gonna dance better than _me_?" Jazz said sounding half scandalized. The occupants of the table watched curiously as Joe walked across the room and tapped Prowl on the shoulder and whispered into his audios. The Datsun nodded and casually slipped an arm around her waist guiding the femme to the dance floor. "Oh frag no. No, no, no. Prowl doesn't dance. Prowl _can't _dance" Jazz rambled.

"Have you ever asked Prowl to dance?" Wheeljack inquired.

"No."

"Have you ever seen Prowl dance?"

"No."

"Then how do you know? Personally I think Prowl would make a very good dancer."

Sunstreaker snorted. "Are we talking about the same Prowl?"

Wheeljack leaned back and adopted his thinking pose. "Contemplate this; everything Prowl does is well planned and executed to achieve optimum results, includin' his movements. He even has the frame for it. So by all rights, he _should_ make a good dancer."

"Just cause something _should_ happen doesn't mean it _will_ happen. I'll believe it when it when I see it" Sideswipe muttered.

Ratchet shook his head in disbelief then returned his attention to Joe and Prowl; or more rather to the arm Prowl had around Joe's waist. He squashed down the twinge of jealousy he felt as the two stopped walking and faced each other. He felt his optics widen as the two began to move on the dance floor. Wheeljack's assessment of Prowl didn't give the mech enough credit by a long shot. Joe was feminine, lithe, and moved well to the music's beat but was _nothing_ when compared to Prowl's movements.

"Wow" Sunstreaker and Sideswipe said in unison with undisguised shock.

Jazz's visor did little to hide the way he watched Prowl with hunger filled optics.

"Told ya" Wheeljack said smugly.

"Yeah, now if only all your theories worked without an explosion afterwards." Ratchet finished off his high grade as he watched the two dancers. He blinked in surprise when Joe turned so that her face was out of view and opened a comm. line with him.

"You have two minutes to convince Jazz to cut in on this dance or you're sleeping alone on your berth tonight."

Ratchet's jaw dropped. "That's not fair" he whispered fiercely over the comm. line.

"One minute and fifty three seconds."

Joe gyrated her hips in a provocative manner and turned around to face Ratchet with an evil grin. Ratchet swallowed and quickly turned to Jazz. "Jazz, if you have any consideration for our friendship you will go out there and dance with Prowl…right…now."

Jazz jerked back in surprise and blinked his visor. "You want me to do what now?"

"Dance with Prowl."

"I dun think…"

"No, you don't think. Look, this little infatuation you've had with Prowl has gone on long enough. So you're afraid of ruining your friendship with the guy, I can respect that. But if you go out there and dance with him you might be able to get some insight as to if he has any of those feelings back for you. If he doesn't have them, well you'll know by the way the dance turns out and there will be no harm done as it was just a dance, right?"

Wheeljack shrugged. "It sort of makes sense…in a twisted high grade induced kind of way."

Sunstreaker frowned. "Any chance this can wait another five vorns? My money is set on the two of you getting together around that time frame."

Jazz frowned and looked down at the table. Suddenly he downed the rest of his high grade and strode out to the dance floor. By the time he reached Prowl and Joe he was wearing his trademark smile again. "'Scuse me ma'am, but do ya mind if I ask yer partner for a whirl?"

Joe smiled and bowed out of the way.

Jazz held out a hand to Prowl "whaddya say Prowler? Ya out danced the femme. Think you can out dance the Jazzman?"

Prowl offered one of his rare smiles and grasped Jazz's hand. "Mission accepted."

Ratchet smiled at Joe as she returned to her seat and leaned against him with a sigh. "Very proud of your little plan aren't you?" he said as he wrapped an arm around her.

"Wish I could claim all the credit love, but it wasn't entirely _my_ plan."

Ratchet gaped and looked back at Prowl who was now dancing rather closely with Jazz. A conversation he had with Joe before she went on her mission suddenly popped into his processor. 'One thing led to another and the next thing I know I'm helping Mr. Spock _strategize._' Those were the exact words she used. "You sneaky, manipulative…"

"Flattery will get you nowhere."

"Well at least you put it to good use this time. Hopefully those two will finally come to some sort of _agreement_, for lack of a better word." He stroked his hand along Joe's shoulder and sighed contentedly. "I guess it's a good thing you chose tactician as your secondary programming, it is more befitting of your new rank."

"New rank?"

"Optimus agreed to commission you. You were an officer in the human military and you've made your mark in the Autobot ranks. So once the processing is completed you will be a junior grade officer."

"Huh. Don't I need to attend an academy or something?"

"The Academy on Cybertron has been a pile of rubble for a long time now. I'm supposed to convince you to choose a new name though. For some reason the designation Joe just doesn't sound very officer like to some of the others."

"Can't imagine why" Joe chuckled. "Exactly how hard did you push Optimus Prime for this promotion? Not that I'm not grateful, but I don't think I could accept the promotion if I didn't earn it myself. I'd feel like a piece of slag if I only got the rank because of my lover."

Ratchet looked down at Joe with a serious expression. "Optimus would not have approved of my suggestion if he didn't think you deserved it Joe. Trust me on this one."

"Good." A round of applause drew their attention back to the dance floor as Jazz and Prowl concluded their dance. Jazz bowed to the audience while Prowl quietly and discreetly disappeared through the crowd and out of the rec room.

"Guess the plan didn't work" Ratchet sighed when he noticed the second in command's departure.

"Pity" Joe replied neutrally. She laughed internally as a brief comm. line opened from Prowl.

"He was told to wait ten minutes before following, please advise me if he leaves before the designated time. Prowl out."

*******I FINALLY DREW A PICTURE OF JOE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ASKED, CHECK FOR THE LINK ON MY BIO*******


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 27 – Questions**

Ironhide idly spun his cannons and sighed in boredom. There hadn't been much action since the charges special ops placed at the Decepticon base went off turning the structure into a smoldering heap. It wasn't the enemy's primary base but it was still important. Apparently it was to be used as a staging area for the planned assault on the Autobot base. Destroying the base had halted nearly all Decepticon activity around the human settlement Joe had hailed from. Ironhide was happy that Joe's old home was free of their 'Con infestation; he just wished special ops had left him _something_ to play with. He picked up a rock near where he was sitting and threw it high into the air. He tracked the rock's decent back down with his guns briefly considering blowing it to dust. "Nah, would probably earn me a lecture if I fired rounds off this close to base."

"Most likely."

Ironhide looked up at Ratchet as the CMO approached. "Well look who decided to emerge from his lil' hidey hole. No patients to torment today or did Joe give ya the slip again?"

Ratchet smirked and sat down on the rocky hill the weapons specialist was already using as a recliner. "Hoist has the med bay shift now and Joe is locked up in Prowl's office."

"So you got nothing to do neither. Welcome to the old bored bots club." He chuckled and tossed a rock at Ratchet.

Ratchet caught the rock and studied it as he turned it over in his hands. "Oh there are things I should probably be doing like inventory, paperwork, calibrations…the jobs left to the Chief Medical Officer are limitless."

Ironhide raised an optic ridge as he regarded the medic. "I feel honored to receive such a prestigious Autobot of your rank. To what does this lowly weapons specialist owe this most benevolent visit? Oh I am so very sorry sir, did you want a salute?"

"Prestigious? Benevolent? I didn't even know you had access to the online thesaurus with that ancient processor of yours."

"Laugh it up rust bucket; you ain't that much younger than me. So what brings ya out my way?"

It was true that Ratchet outranked Ironhide, but the grizzled old warrior had been fighting in the Autobot ranks well before Ratchet had graduated from the medical academy. Though rough around the edges, Ironhide had the wisdom of ages; which is what Ratchet needed now. "Actually, I was hoping for some advice."

"Advice? Primus help me. You've been 'round long enough that mechs should be askin' _you_ for advice! Go bother Wheeljack if…"

"It's about bonds."

Ironhide winced and leaned his helm back on the rocky ground to stare up at the sky. "Bonds is it? You thinkin' bout bondin' that pretty young femme 'o yours already?"

"The thought has crossed my processor."

"Bondin' is permanent Ratchet. Movin' kinda fast for a member of a race that lives for a long fraggin' time."

"I'm not suggesting that I bond her today; but in the future…perhaps." Ratchet leaned back on his arms and kicked a few rocks down the hill. "The thought of being with Joe for the rest of my life…it feels…I don't know how to put it."

"It feels right. As if completin' a piece 'o yourself you didn't know was missin'."

Ratchet looked over at Ironhide in shock. "Exactly."

"I know that feelin' well; had it with Chromia."

Ironhide shuttered his optics and Ratchet could almost feel the spark wrenching sense of loss rolling off him in waves. Ironhide was a rarity in that he had beaten the overwhelming odds when he survived the death of his bonded mate. He hated bringing these feelings back up in the older mech, but he needed someone with experience to talk to. "When did you know it was the right time to bring up the subject of bonding with her?"

Ironhide's optics shot open as he barked a short laugh. "Bring it up with _her_? I thought you told me you'd met Chromia once. That fraggin' femme pinned me down and _demanded_ I bond her. You don't say no to a femme like that. Not if you value yer spark that is." He sat up and looked over at Ratchet with serious optics. "Alright you want advice, I'll give ya advice. It all comes down to this; do ya love her?"

"Of course."

"Does she love you?"

"Without a doubt in my PCU."

"Then to the Pit with everyone else. Who gives a frag about what the others say is right or wrong; you follow your spark. Since when did emotions have guidelines and rules to follow anyways?" Ironhide gave a sharp nod then laid back down with a sigh. "You can exist for a long time or you can live for a long time; choice is yours."

Ratchet stared at the rocky ground between his feet letting Ironhide's words sink in. He glanced over at the older mech who was staring up at the sky again with a small smile and turned his own optics skyward. He placed his hands behind his helm and laid down to watch the clouds pass lazily by overhead with a small smile of his own.

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Agreed, the north sector makes the most sense. You have been most helpful Ms. Josephine."

"Joe."

Prowl looked up from his datapad and raised an optic ridge. "I beg your pardon?"

Joe cycled her vents in a heavy sigh. "We've known each other for awhile now. Do you have any idea how many times I've asked you to call me Joe instead of Ms. Josephine?"

"Six hundred and eighty eight."

"Ok, that was a rhetorical question; but the point remains the same. Why can't you just call me Joe like everyone else?"

"Technically no one should be calling you either name. Were you not asked to find a new designation when you were commissioned?"

"I haven't found one that fits me yet."

"I was told that Sideswipe gave you a list of possible names."

"Oh yeah like I wanna be known as Whirlybird or Bladebabe."

"I will keep an optic open for a name then. Perhaps I can find something more…_suitable_ than Sideswipe's selection."

"I'd appreciate the help so long as you don't go using up your off time to search for one. The last thing I need is Jazz complaining about me taking up more of your time." Prowl's doorwings hiked up in irritation as he narrowed his optics. "It was a joke Prowl. Jazz doesn't complain about me taking up your time."

"That is good to hear."

"But now that we're on the subject; you never did tell me how things went after the party." Joe grinned as the corners of Prowl's mouth twitched ever so slightly trying to hold back a smile.

"Jazz caught up with me afterwards and we had a talk."

"A talk" Joe deadpanned. She shook her head and crossed her arms across her chest. "You owe me more than that. I haven't spent all this time corrupting you for nothing."

"Corrupting me?"

"I seem to remember a time when I was able to chase you out of the med bay by simply inquiring about interfacing. The mech I saw dancing with Jazz the other night was anything but innocent. Don't think I didn't notice the moves you tossed in there that I didn't teach you." Joe's grin grew when Prowl gave up trying to hide his smile.

"Well, we started out talking" Prowl confessed. "I was surprised to find out how long he had harbored feelings for me. He was equally surprised to find out the same thing about myself." Prowl leaned back slightly in his chair and felt his spark warm as memories from the other night swirled in his processor. "We are opposites in almost every way and yet...to put it simply; Jazz is the most amazing mech I have ever met."

"Well they say opposites attract."

"Then you and Ratchet are the exception to that rule. You two are very much alike; frighteningly so at times."

Joe lowered her optics to look at her hands in her lap. "Yeah…scary."

Prowl frowned as he picked up on the change in Joe's demeanor. Joe fidgeted with the tail rotors on her knees and twitched her back blades nervously. Prowl vaguely wondered if his doorwings revealed as much as Joe's back blades did. "Is something wrong?"

"Wrong? Oh no, nothing's wrong, I just…any chance we can cut this a little short today?"

"Of course, there is little more we can accomplish at the moment anyways." Joe smiled at him gratefully then left his office. Prowl propped his chin on his steepled fingers as he watched the office door close behind the femme. 'Why did her mood change at the mention of Ratchet?' he wondered. He sat up straight when his door opened again to admit Jazz. "You know most mechs ask before entering my office. It could not hurt to follow their example."

Jazz smirked and plopped down in the chair Joe had vacated. "But I'm not most mechs, now am I Prowler?" His smirk grew when Prowl twitched an optic ridge at hearing his pet name. "So how much longer you gonna be cooped up in here? I was kinda hopin' ta get a lil' alone time with ya tonight." He added an obvious leer in case the tactician had missed what he meant by _alone time_. Prowl's lips curved slightly in one of his small secretive smiles indicating that he had indeed caught the hint.

"I have a few more reports to go over and then I will be more than happy to spend some time with you."

Jazz reached across Prowl's desk grasping his hands in his own and raising them to his lips. "Music to my audios love."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Ratchet returned to his shared quarters with Joe and was surprised that his berthmate was not there. A note on the berth caught his attention and he picked it up to read. _Ratchet, I went out for a bit, will be back late. _Ratchet frowned at the note's lack of information and sat down on the berth. The femme had been hard to get a hold of since her return from the mission and he was a little disappointed at not being able to spend some time with her tonight. He accessed a panel next to his berth and flipped through Joe's selection of music until he found a playlist filled with some soft music. He laid back on the berth listening to the soft sounds of a human instrument called a guitar and shuttered his optics. He fell into recharge while watching the door in the hopes that Joe would come back.

Ratchet woke as his internal chronometer informed him that he was due for med bay duty soon. He stretched then suddenly froze as he realized that Joe had not returned. He sat up and looked around the room with a frown. Climbing out of the berth he quickly prepared for his shift and left his quarters. He stepped into the med bay and felt his frown deepen when he spotted Wheeljack instead of Joe running over an inventory list with Hoist. "Where is Joe?"

Wheeljack blinked up at Ratchet uncertainly. "Joe asked if I'd mind switching shifts with her. I assumed she had cleared it with you first."

Hoist raised his optics from the datapad in his hand and caught the look Ratchet shot Wheeljack. He shifted his feet nervously as he picked up on the tension between the two mechs. "You know I think we had some medical supplies come in last night. I'll just go check the loading dock and see if any of it can be moved up to the supply closet."

Ratchet ignored Hoist as the mech walked past him to exit the med bay. "She did not clear it with me. Do you know why she switched shifts; more importantly do you know where she is now?"

"No and no. I'd say check for her locator but ever since Jazz taught her how to turn it off she's become increasingly difficult to track. Why, what's up?"

Ratchet leaned against a repair berth and ran a hand over his optics. "I'm getting the impression that she's been avoiding me. She disappeared yesterday leaving a note that she'd be out but she never came back last night. I've barely seen her since she came back from her mission."

Wheeljack's voice indicators flashed a slight pink in embarrassment as he tried to figure out how to ask his next question. "She uh…she hasn't been sharing your berth?"

Ratchet shrugged his shoulders and looked down. "Not since after the party. That's the last time I've really seen her for longer than a few minutes in passing."

"I see. Well she hasn't confided in me. Wish I could give ya an answer Ratchet." Wheeljack's spark sank as he watched his friend nod and walk into his office in a daze shutting the door behind him. He looked over at the supply closet and decided that inventory could wait. He strode out of the med bay towards Prowl's office. Joe worked with the tactician as much as she worked in the med bay now. Perhaps the second in command could shine some light on the situation. Nothing sparked an engineer's or inventor's interest faster than a problem that needed solving; and right now Wheeljack was determined to solve the problem that had consumed his friends.


	7. Chapter 7

_***I asked around for ideas on how this story was to proceed and got several requests for this particular topic. Soooo...yeah, tried my best to fit it in. Not entirely happy with it, but that'll do pig, that'll do.***_

**Chapter – Fear**

"You know, you never did tell me why you wanted to trade shifts."

"I just wanted to try something different" Joe replied without looking up from her datapad.

"Uh huh, annnnd how long are you gonna work this shift?"

"I dunno."

"That's an interesting translation for _until I_ _stop actin' like a youngling_."

Joe sighed in exasperation and finally looked up at Wheeljack. "I'm not in the mood Jack."

"So sorry, but last I checked I outrank you; so answer the question." Joe smirked and went back to her datapad. Wheeljack grinned and grabbed the datapad out from under her.

"Hey! Give that back!"

"Not 'til you start bein' honest with me. Now why are you avoiding Ratchet?"

"I'm not, I've just been busy. Will you please give me my datapad back? I have studying to do."

"Yer gonna have to give a better answer than that" Wheeljack replied waving the datapad out of Joe's reach. He leaped back and moved to the other side of a repair berth when Joe stood up.

"Come on Jack, this is stupid."

"So glad we agree. I'll stop actin' like a youngling when you do." He yelped and ran for the supply closet when Joe jumped onto the repair berth he was using as a shield. He dodged around various shelves in the large closet and stopped short when he came to a dead end. Joe skid around some shelves and smirked at seeing Wheeljack trapped. Wheeljack threw the datapad at Joe and ran past as she moved to catch her prize.

Joe checked her datapad for damage then turned to leave. Wheeljack stood in the closet doorway and waved at her before shutting the door. "He wouldn't…" She rushed to the door and attempted to open it only to find it locked. "Yeah, yeah he would" she muttered. "Jack! Open the damn door!"

Wheeljack leaned his back against the door and listened to Joe yell and pound on the door. This isn't exactly what he had planned. "Ratchet is gonna kill me when he finds out." His voice indicators suddenly lit up excitedly when a new idea popped into his processor. He waited for Joe to stop yelling then opened a comm. line with Ratchet. "Hey Ratch, you awake?"

"Yeah, I still can't recharge."

'Poor mech; well hopefully this will solve the problem' Wheeljack thought to himself. "I got somethin' really neat to show ya in the med bay."

"Fine, be there in a moment."

"Heya Ratch" Wheeljack chirped happily when the CMO entered the med bay.

Ratchet eyed his overly happy friend curiously. "What?"

Wheeljack walked over and placed an arm around Ratchet's shoulders. "I found it in the supply closet; it's the strangest thing" he replied as he guided his friend towards the closet. He stepped aside letting Ratchet open the door and then shoved the CMO inside.

Joe looked up from where she was seated against a shelf when the door opened. Ratchet appeared in the doorframe with Wheeljack moving behind him. "Ratchet! Don't let the door…!"

**SLAM!**

"…close." Joe shuttered her optics and banged the back of her head against the shelf.

Ratchet regained his balance from being shoved inside the supply closet and looked down at Joe in surprise. He looked back at the closed door and put the pieces together. With a frown he turned to the door and tried to open it. "Wheeljack! Open the fraggin' door you aft headed slagger!"

"I already tried that approach" Joe muttered.

Ratchet grumbled then sat down on the floor opposite Joe. He studied the motionless femme across from him and felt his spark flutter. There were a thousand things he wanted to say to her, but he didn't know how to go about saying them.

"You look tired."

Ratchet blinked and realized that Joe had unshuttered her optics and was looking at him. "I haven't been able to recharge much lately. You look kind of tired yourself." Actually, she looked flat out exhausted. Joe shrugged but said nothing in reply. "How long has Jack had you locked up in here?"

"Not long."

"Just so you know, I had nothing to do with this."

"No, this has crackpot Wheeljack plan written all over it."

"He's just trying to help in his own glitched way. But since he's managed to pin us both in here, want to tell me what's been bothering you?" Ratchet instantly regretted asking his concern right out like that when Joe stood and tried playing with the door lock. She smacked the door hard with her palm in frustration and flinched back cradling her hand. Ratchet stood and gently took Joe's hand in his own to check it. "You need to be careful with your hands, they are sensitive."

"So I've been told."

Deciding that Joe's hand was not seriously damaged Ratchet looked up into her optics but maintained his hold on her hand caressing it slightly. "Why do you run from me Joe?" he asked quietly. "Have I done something wrong? Please, tell me; my spark cannot take this."

Joe glanced at the door wishing it would suddenly open. There would be no escape this time; no running from what she had been so afraid of confronting. "I am a coward, that's what's wrong."

"You are many things; but coward is hardly one of them. Do…do I scare you?" It hurt him to ask that, but he had to get to the bottom of this.

Joe swallowed and tried to ignore the sensations Ratchet was causing as he caressed her hand. "It is your response to something that I fear."

"Response to what? There is nothing you can do or tell me that could ever make me turn from you."

Ratchet inched closer and looked down at her with those beautiful optics of his. All Autobots (except her of course) had blue optics; but each had a slightly different shade of blue from Bumblebee's pale sky blue to Hound's dark twilight blue. Joe wondered if Ratchet had any idea what affect his piercing blue optics had on her. A warning flashed in her processor breaking her trance. She placed her other hand to her head and blinked. "Tell you what; get us out of here before I drop into stasis lock from low energon and I will show you what I've been avoiding."

Concern flashed across Ratchet's faceplates and he quickly approached the door. As a necessity for flight, Joe was a lightweight for a medic. Most medics were constructed more like Ratchet; capable of great strength, able to carry mechs several times their own size off the battle field. Ratchet put all of that strength to use as he slammed his shoulder against the door sending it bowing outwards. What was left of the door came free of the frame easily with a tug. Ratchet helped Joe to a repair berth then went to the dispenser to retrieve an energon cube. "No sign of Jack. The fragger must have taken off in case we got out" he said as he returned.

"Smartest move he's made yet" Joe replied half heartedly as she worked with the scanner next to her repair berth. She accepted the energon cube Ratchet offered and sipped it while continuing with the scanner. "I nearly went into stasis twice from low energon levels during the special ops mission despite taking in my usual amount."

Ratchet's optic ridges lowered as he frowned. "It might have been nice to know that before. Did you check for leaks?"

"Give me a little credit. You are the one who trained me after all. Of course I checked for leaks."

"Are there any other symptoms? Perhaps…"

"I already know what's wrong; I just don't know what to do about it."

Ratchet smiled playfully as he climbed onto the berth to sit behind Joe and leaned in close as if to tell her a secret. "This may come as a surprise, but I happen to be the Chief Medical Officer" he whispered. "If you ask really nice and tell me what you know I might just be able to help."

Joe glanced back at Ratchet with a raised optic ridge. "You are a real piece of work you know that?" She sighed when he just smiled and shrugged. Turning back to the scanner she turned on the monitor so Ratchet could see what she had uploaded. "I am no Chief Medical Officer, at least not yet, but I am pretty sure I know what _that_ is."

Ratchet looked at where Joe was pointing on the display and felt his fuel pump stall briefly in shock. He reached past her and adjusted the settings on the monitor to enhance and sharpen a portion of the image. He stared at the monitor for a long time unable to look away. After awhile he pulled his gaze away to look at Joe who had her optics shuttered tight. She flinched slightly as he pulled her back against his chest and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Open your optics Joe."

"No."

"Please?" She unshuttered her optics and looked up at the monitor. Ratchet pressed his cheek against hers and placed his hands over her abdomen. "You know what that is." Joe nodded and tensed in his arms. "Primus has blessed us with a sparkling. You have given me a great gift beloved."

Joe looked at Ratchet out of the corner of her optics. "I…I don't understand. I thought you would be upset with me."

"Why?"

"When I found out what was going on I did some investigating. I read that sparklings were practically forbidden during the war."

"Frowned upon, yes; forbidden, not exactly. The Allspark can spark life into a shell with a command; but to spark a life within a life, you must _ask_ the Allspark. It won't grant the request to just anyone. When the war broke out the first option was the preferred choice due to the immediate need for mechs and femmes on the battlefield. Actual sparklings require time to be born and grow; much like humans."

"That is the other reason I was afraid…I did not ask the Allspark Ratchet."

Ratchet jerked back with a gasp. "What?!"

Joe hunched in on herself. "I didn't ask" she whispered.

Ratchet stared at Joe in disbelief. He reached out to her with shaking hands and turned her around so that she was sitting facing him. "Human" he whispered in awe as he looked her over. "One of your human traits; it _has_ to be. The ability to procreate without the use of an Allspark followed you into your cybertronian body." Joe shuddered and looked on the verge of crying though their race could not produce tears. He wrapped her up in his arms and rocked on the repair berth. "Shhhh, it's alright. There is no need to be scared." The sound of someone clearing their throat made him raise his optics to the med bay doorway.

"Sorry Ratch; I wouldn't have come back so soon but I need the repair kit for Cliffjumper. He has a burned out relay in his leg" Wheeljack said quietly.

Ratchet lifted his head and smiled at his friend. "Come here Jack. It's my turn to show _you_ something _neat_."

"Does it involve beating me senseless for the closet thing?"

"No" Ratchet chuckled. Wheeljack cautiously approached and frowned in concern at seeing Joe's current state. "Look" Ratchet whispered indicating the monitor next to the berth.

Wheeljack glanced over at the monitor and gasped. "Primus" he whispered as he leaned in closer to the image of the sparkling. It was still in it's early stages and so still lacked a frame; but it's spark had stabilized and shone brightly. "Primus! Congratulations just don't seem to do the occasion justice!" He looked down at Joe and raised an optic ridge to Ratchet in silent question.

"See Joe? I am not upset and neither is Jack" Ratchet said softly. She looked up at him through half shuttered optics and managed a weak smile. "You are in some desperate need of some serious recharge aren't you?"

"I'd say you both are" Wheeljack added.

The initial euphoria of discovering he was a creator had masked his exhaustion from earlier but now Ratchet could feel it creeping back up on him. He shifted his arms to carry Joe and slipped off the repair berth. He glanced back at the monitor one last time and smiled.

Wheeljack patted Ratchet's shoulder and gave him a little shove in the direction of the med bay doors. "You look like yer gonna fall into recharge standing there starin' at the monitor. You have plenty of time to see your sparkling when you wake up. Now off with you. Take your mate and go recharge."

Ratchet grinned evilly at Wheeljack as he stepped through the doors. "Thanks Jack, but for the record, I'm still going to laugh when Joe kicks your aft for earlier."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 29 – Names**

"Quit yer poutin' already Prowler; it's just the rec room."

"I do not pout; and I do not see why I could not have just taken energon in my office. There is still much work that needs to be done" Prowl replied as he sat down at a table. Jazz sat next to him and handed him an energon cube.

"You need ta get out more; relax a little."

"I get out."

Jazz glanced sideways at Prowl with raised optic ridges. "Me draggin' your aft outta the office doesn't count as goin' out."

"Why must you always make it sound like I live in my office?" Prowl took a sip of his energon and nearly choked when he felt Jazz's hand slide over his thigh under the table. "Jazz!" he whispered fiercely. "We are in public!" He squirmed slightly in his chair and looked around nervously. Several mechs were seated around the TV watching a human war movie while others sat in small groups at various tables; thankfully it appeared as if no one had noticed. He slapped Jazz's hand away and scooted his chair out of the saboteur's reach.

"Definitely need ta relax" Jazz grinned as he drank from his energon cube.

Prowl swallowed and felt his temperature rise when Jazz licked some stray energon from his lips seductively. He shook his head in an attempt to clear his processor and focused in on the TV hoping it would be enough of a distraction. He was not aware of the movie's name but it appeared to take place during the war between the United States and the country called Vietnam. The scene currently being played out involved several military helicopters containing Army Cavalry conducting an attack. Prowl raised an optic ridge curiously as the commander of the offending force ordered music played during the assault. "Humans use some very unique tactics in battle."

Jazz gave up his pout at losing Prowl's attention and turned to the TV. "Yeah, I've seen this one before. The idea of usin' music ta confuse an frighten' the enemy is weird, but effective. Thought bout tryin' somethin' similar myself; maybe add a lil light show in to boot."

Prowl nodded absently as he continued to watch the TV. Out of curiosity he investigated the song used in the movie on the internet. Finding an unfamiliar word in the song title he looked that up as well. He quickly read through the definition and reference material. "That's it" he said softly with a small smile.

Jazz looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"I am sorry Jazz but I have to cut our lunch date short. I have to see a friend about a solution to their problem. You are more than welcome to join me if you wish. You may find it rather…_entertaining._"

"Hey you know me; I'm all for entertainment."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Joe watched in fascination as Ratchet reviewed the most recent low level scan of their sparkling. The anxious feelings she had regarding scans were apparently a part of a program that surfaces when a sparkling comes into the picture. It was a defensive instinct to protect the sparkling from heavier scans which could be harmful. Between the fear of scans, avoiding high grade, and a few other smaller signs; Ratchet had been very embarrassed that he hadn't put the pieces together. It was one of Joe's favorite things to tease him about. The scan revealed that the sparkling was healthy and coming along nicely. It's frame was finally starting to make an appearance much to it's creators' delight. Joe had been surprised to learn that she would only carry the sparkling for a year. It seemed a very short time considering how long the cybertronian race lived. The majority of it's development would occur after the berthing where it's programming would adapt the rest of the frame to the environment. She sighed and stretched her arms out across Ratchet's desk resting her chin between them.

Ratchet turned from his desk console to look at her with concern. "Are you ok? Do you need energon?"

"Oh stop worrying. I'm fine. I'm just…this is just new to me ya know? It's a little overwhelming."

Ratchet smiled and gently ran a hand over Joe's head plates. He chuckled as his berthmate shuttered her optics and practically purred at the touch.

She pulled Ratchet's hand from her head plates and placed a small kiss to his palm. "So you have any names picked yet?"

"Names? Need I remind you that we still don't know the gender? We have plenty of time to think up a name. "

"Doesn't mean we can't start thinking about it."

"This coming from the femme who can't decide on her own name?"

"Point taken slagger. So what else can you tell me?"

"That depends on what you want to know. I can tell you when the sparkling was conceived though I'm sure you can figure that one out yourself." Joe smiled against his arm. "That's what I thought. Anyways, we can expect your transformation seams and plating to start transforming to adapt the growing sparkling fairly soon. When that becomes more prominent you can say goodbye to flying for awhile as you won't be able to transform into your alt mode."

"Well you don't have to sound so happy about it. I know my flying makes you nervous but I rather enjoy it thank you very much." Joe unshuttered both optics and looked up at Ratchet with a mischievous grin. "So...we can still _play_…right?"

Ratchet tossed his head back and laughed. "You are an insatiable glitch" he wheezed trying to catch his breath. "Yes, we can still _play_, as long as it's just interfacing and not spark sharing."

"I can live with that…sooooooo just out of curiosity, how much longer until you are relieved?"

Ratchet grinned and picked up a datapad pretending to read it. "Actually, I was thinking of staying late tonight to catch up on some paperwork."

"Pity. Well I guess I'll just go hang out in the supply closet all by_ myself_ and get some inventory done then" Joe replied lightly. She ran a hand up Ratchet's arm activating a few nodes in the process as she stood. She chuckled as the sound of Ratchet's datapad cracking in his tightening grip reached her audios.

Ratchet watched hungrily as Joe walked out of his office with an obvious sway to her hips. He counted to ten slowly then literally leapt over his desk after her. He did a quick sweep of the med bay making sure no one was around then stepped into the supply closet. He found Joe leaning against a shelf near the back with her arms folded across her chest. "I don't see much inventory getting done Joe" he said quietly as he walked up to her.

Joe yawned and raised her hands above her head to grip a high shelf behind her in a stretch. "I've decided to be a disobedient insolent apprentice instead."

"A reprimand should be in order then" Ratchet breathed as his stopped in front of Joe.

"I consent to whatever punishment you deem necessary sir." Joe suddenly found herself being lifted by her waist and pinned against the shelf while Ratchet kissed her fiercely. She wrapped her legs around him and returned the kiss with equal fervor. Desperate hands roamed over each other's frames aggressively not caring about the supplies that spilled from the shelves to the floor as a result. Joe bit into Ratchet's neck as she delved her fingers into a seam in his side. Ratchet moaned at the attention and worked one of his hands loose from Joe's waist to slide up one of her back blades trailing small arcs of blue electricity in it's wake. Joe's scream was swallowed as Ratchet captured her lips in another bruising kiss. Joe managed to free his interface cable and plugged it into herself. She felt Ratchet tense and nearly drop her as their connection flared to life. They were both too wound up, too desperate to make it last as the sensations began to pass back and forth between them. Overload overtook them quickly in a blinding white light.

Neither of them went off line this time but it did take awhile for bearings to get righted and for systems to be cooled down enough to operate normally again. Joe unshuttered one optic and glanced at Ratchet who returned a dazed look. "I don't think I will ever get used to that" she mumbled against his chest.

Ratchet grinned and pulled a spare servo he had landed on out from under his back. "You know what's funny? You are going to get more aggressive as the sparkling begins to stress your systems."

"Well I'm sure you won't complain much" Joe's muttered against her lover's plating.

"Ratchet? Joe? Are you in here?"

"Oh slag" Ratchet laughed as he quickly tried to disconnect himself from Joe. They scrambled to their feet and tried to make themselves look like they were not just recovering from a quick, if aggressive interfacing session. Ratchet took a deep breath through his intakes and calmly exited the supply closet with Joe following behind. Stepping into the med bay proper he spotted Prowl and Jazz looking like they were about to leave. "Leaving so soon?"

"An where were you two hidin?" Jazz inquired with a grin as he stepped back from the med bay doors. Prowl strode up to stand beside him and raised an eyebrow at the two medics.

"We were in the supply closet…doing inventory" Ratchet replied. He shot a warning glare at Joe when the femme turned away from their visitors trying to hold back her laughter. "What can I do for you two?"

"Actually, I stopped by to speak with Joe. I believe I have found a suitable designation for her."

Joe turned back around in surprise. "Oh?"

"What would you say to the name Valkyrie? Out of ancient Earth history, they are female Norse beings usually described as being capable of flight and charged with guiding heroes to Valhalla."

"It's also in a song used in the movie Apocalypse Now where helicopters rain down some serious hurt on the bad guys" Jazz joked. "Flyin' chicks helpin' heroes find paradise an helicopters puttin' baddies in their place…you gotta admit; that's you to a T girl."

Joe was familiar with both references and grinned at the concept. "What do you think Ratchet?"

Ratchet completed his own internet investigations of the name and smiled at his mate. "I believe Jazz is right; the name seems made for you." He stepped up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "It's up to you Joe."

"Call me Val" Valkyrie replied proudly.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 30 – Orders**

"Any further communications?"

"Not a one Optimus" Ironhide replied. "Last we heard Prowl's down an Bluestreak was hard pressed tryin' to keep those seekers off their afts."

"Who do we have slotted for the back up?"

"Jazz, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, an Tracks are out front now just waitin' on yer go ahead. Bein' capable of decent speeds, that group will be goin' first. M'self, Hound, an Trailblazer will follow to offer some more firepower an to escort Ratchet."

Optimus Prime nodded in approval as they cleared the base entrance and were met by the awaiting forces outside. "Jazz, take your team and roll out; and be careful!" Jazz nodded with an anxious flash of his visor then turned to his team. Optimus watched his lieutenant transform and peel out with the first wave following close behind. 'Not like him to be this quiet; he's probably worried about Prowl' he thought to himself.

"Ya know I could get there faster and distract those second rate Decepti-creep fliers until the others get there."

Optimus turned around to regard Powerglide as the pilot jogged up. "I do not doubt your aerial capabilities Powerglide but we have reports of two, maybe three, seekers. We have precious few fliers in our ranks to risk one on odds like that."

Valkyrie turned from where she had been talking with Ratchet having overheard Optimus and Powerglide. Ratchet grabbed her arm and spun her back around.

"No!" Ratchet whispered fiercely. "Don't even _think_ about it!"

"But Prowl and Bluestreak…"

Ratchet cut Valkyrie off by grabbing her other arm and pulling her closer so the others could not hear. "It's not just _you_ that you'd be putting at risk now."

"It's just flying Ratchet; a distraction. I am more maneuverable then…"

"No!" Ratchet cycled his vents when Joe's expression turned mulish. "For once, please, put your stubborn streak aside and think this through. Think about our sparkling."

"I'm thinking about our sparkling growing up in a world without Prowl and Bluestreak in it and that's just not acceptable to me."

"Val…please…don't put me in this position. Don't make me do this" Ratchet begged.

Valkyrie narrowed her optics then wrenched her arms free of Ratchet's grip and strode over to Optimus. "Sir, I volunteer to go with Powerglide."

Powerglide eyed the femme warily before nodding his head slowly. "The two of us together would have better odds. Once the others get there she'd also be able to break off an tend to Prowl. Two birds, one stone as the humans say."

When it looked as if Optimus was actually considering the pilot's idea Ratchet decided that this had gone on far enough. "I'm afraid I cannot approve of this Optimus."

Optimus raised an optic ridge at Ratchet as the CMO stepped up. "Powerglide has offered a promising idea that would increase our chances of getting our ambushed Autobots back with their sparks still intact. As much as I appreciate and value your input Ratchet, the decision to send…"

"Is your decision Prime" Ratchet interrupted. "But I _will_ override it as Chief Medical Officer."

Optimus blinked in shock. A CMO had the ability to override a commander's order based on medical situations but he failed to see how that applied here. "I'd really like to know why" he replied unable to keep the irritation out of his vocals.

"Because Valkyrie is with sparkling" Ratchet said with a heavy spark. Out of the corner of his optic he saw Valkyrie's back blades drop vertically pointing to the ground. He forced himself to face her and squared his shoulders. "Valkyrie you are hereby struck from the active duty roster and are restricted to light duty. Please report to the med bay and standby for the incoming wounded." She came to attention and snapped a sharp salute before turning and walking stiffly towards the base doing her best to ignore the stares that followed her.

Optimus shook his head in disbelief. "We will deal with this later. Right now I need you all on the road to assist the others. Ironhide ready your team. Ironhide? Ironhide!!"

Ironhide jumped and ripped his optics away from Valkyrie. "Right away Prime. Come on you sorry scrap heaps, we have Datsuns to rescue."

Optimus stood aside as Ironhide led his team in transformation and then departed in the same direction Jazz's team had taken. Keeping an audio tuned to the channel designated for battle traffic he stepped into the base and made his way to the med bay. Once inside he found Valkyrie carefully arranging tools next to a repair berth while Wheeljack watched her with concerned optics from Ratchet's office. Wheeljack spotted him and quickly straightened. Optimus shook his head and yanked a thumb back towards the door he had just entered. Wheeljack hunched his shoulders and tossed a worried look at Valkyrie before following his commander's wordless command and left the med bay. "Is there any particular reason as to why this was kept from me?"

"Ratchet didn't know until recently himself. I got the impression that sparklings were illegal during war and feared what the response would be."

Optimus shook his head sadly at the femme's back as she continued to work. "I assume that Ratchet has since corrected that misunderstanding; why maintain the secret then?"

"Because I did not ask the Allspark" Valkyrie replied thickly as she finally turned to face her commander. She flinched when Optimus jerked back in a reaction similar to Ratchet's when she first told him. "We think it's due to the human traits I inherited. Ratchet and Wheeljack think that if my _unique qualities_ can be replicated, the cybertronian race can break away from it's reliance on the Allspark to thrive."

Optimus placed a hand to his forehead and took a deep breath through his intakes. "I must admit, this is a lot to take in."

"You have no idea" Valkyrie replied dryly as she turned back to her preparations. "Try having this news broken to you by your lover and his best friend while having them both looking at you like you were some sort of guinea pig."

"I see. Well, if such a thing were possible it would truly be a gift from Primus, but I can promise you that no one will use you as a…guinea pig? I believe my internet search needs to be fine tuned for that reference. As for the situation that occurred today, I agree with Ratchet. You will never have any idea how grateful I am that you joined our ranks; your help has been invaluable. But you need to take into consideration that the risks you used to take are not an option now that you are carrying a sparkling."

"I know, I just hate sitting on the sidelines" Valkyrie sighed. "When I was human I had hit that age where I didn't think I'd ever have children and I guess I am just having a hard time believing this is really happening. Then there is the worry about actually living up to being a mother…or creator in this case."

"I have no doubt that you and Ratchet will make fine creators. Which reminds me…thank you.

Valkyrie blinked in confusion and turned to regard Optimus. "For what sir?"

"For gracing my crew with the first sparkling our kind has had in a long, long time. I believe the proper wording amongst humans is that you have my blessings."

Valkyrie felt a huge weight lift off her spark that she hadn't realized was there. Without thinking about what she was doing she wrapped her arms around Optimus' waist in a tight hug. The Autobot commander gently returned the gesture until she pulled back feeling slightly embarrassed. "Sorry" she began then cut off as Wheeljack spilled back into the med bay helping Hound carry Prowl to the repair berth she had prepared. The Lamborghini twins followed next carrying Bluestreak who had what appeared to be a nearly severed leg and several scattered burn marks.

Valkyrie quickly moved over to Prowl's berth and began removing his severely damaged chest plating. Ratchet strode up to the other side of the repair berth and quietly began working on the offline tactician. Together they clamped leaks, removed destroyed wiring, and replaced ruined circuitry. A sudden piercing cry drew their attention to Bluestreak's berth.

"He's glitching again" cried Sideswipe as he attempted to hold the struggling Datsun down on his berth.

Ratchet shook his head. "I can't leave Prowl to help right now. Just use the restraints."

Valkyrie looked over at Bluestreak then back down at Prowl. She reached across the table and placed a hand on Ratchet's. He blinked in confusion as she walked over to where Bluestreak was fighting with the twins. "Let him go" she said calmly. "It's ok" she continued when they looked at her like she was malfunctioning. Reluctantly, they released the thrashing Datsun and stepped back. Valkyrie slowly climbed onto his berth and pulled the shivering gunner into her arms. "Shhhhh, you are with your friends now Blue; be still brother" she whispered into his audios as she slowly rocked him. Bluestreak held onto her tightly and sobbed tearlessly into her chest.

Wheeljack took up Valkyrie's spot at Prowl's repair berth when she left to assist Bluestreak. He kept glancing up in awe as the femme managed to calm down the distressed gunner. "She's nearly got him in recharge despite his injuries; and without putting him in manual stasis or disconnecting pain receptors" he whispered across the table to Ratchet.

Ratchet looked over his shoulder at his mate and smiled. "She's good Jack; very good."

It was several hours before Ratchet stepped away from Prowl's repair berth. The tactician was repaired but he would remain in the med bay for another day or so until Ratchet was convinced the new parts didn't cause any problems. He frowned at Jazz recharging in a chair next to the berth and debated kicking the Porshe out but ended up leaving him as he was. 'That slagging femme is making me soft. I never would have let him stay before.' He glanced around the med bay and smiled at the sight of a recharging Bluestreak still curled up in Valkyrie's arms. Wheeljack had managed to repair his injuries despite the gunner's refusal to be separated from the femme. "Did you want to sleep here with your new pillow or did you need some assistance getting untangled without waking him?" he whispered.

"He's been laying on my left arm so long that I've lost all feeling in it. In other words, yes, I would like some assistance."

Ratchet chuckled lightly as he helped rearrange Bluestreak so Valkyrie could slide off the berth. He gently laid the Datsun back down without waking him and turned to find Valkyrie walking unsteadily towards the med bay's energon dispenser. Checking his internal chronometer he winced realizing that the femme was long past due for her energon intake. If he hadn't of been so caught up in his work on Prowl he might have realized this sooner. "Are you alright?"

Valkyrie obtained an energon cube and quickly emptied it before replying. "I will be."

Ratchet sighed at the neutral response. "Val, about earlier…"

"Don't" she interrupted. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still a little upset; but I could of handled the situation a little better." She leaned up against the energon dispenser with a tired sigh. "I also had a chat with Optimus."

Ratchet walked up to his berthmate and cautiously placed an arm around her shoulders. He felt the tense feeling in his spark dissipate when the femme relaxed and shifted her lean from the energon dispenser to his frame. "What did you two talk about?"

"Guinea pigs." The confused look on Ratchet's face plates sent her into a fit of laughter which she quickly tried to control so she wouldn't wake their resting patients.

"Somehow I doubt that, but I will pretend to believe you if you agree to go get in some recharge before I have to carry you."

"Then I suggest you call for your relief to come in because I am not recharging alone."

"Is that an order?"

"Of course. You may be able to order me around as the CMO but when it comes to off duty stuff…I'm the Prime."

Ratchet smirked and looked at Valkyrie incredulously. "And what makes you think I am not the Prime in this relationship?"

"You want the title? Fine; _you_ carry this thing in you for a year then."

"You win."

"I know."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 31 – Wants**

Prowl stopped talking mid sentence and looked up sharply at the sound of Valkyrie's gasp. The femme was leaning heavily on the map table with one hand while the other was pressed against her abdomen. He quickly rounded the table and wrapped an arm around her for support as he guided her to a chair. "Are you alright?" She blinked up at him with overly bright optics and was panting slightly through her intakes. "Valkyrie? Do you need me to call Ratchet?"

Valkyrie shuttered her optics and took a deep breath holding it until her intakes had slowed down. She unshuttered her optics and shook her head at Prowl. "No, no I'm fine. I just got caught off guard. I've never been kicked from the _inside_ before."

Prowl widened his optics in surprise and glanced down at where Valkyrie still had her hand splayed across her midsection. "Your sparkling, you are able to feel it move?" For an answer she took hold of his hand and placed it over her abdomen. He started to protest then froze in shock. "I…I felt it" he whispered as he slowly knelt beside her.

Valkyrie smiled at the sound of awe and wonder in the tactician's voice. She chuckled as the sparkling gave her a little nudge. "I think it likes you Prowl."

"This is amazing. I am really quite jealous." He quirked his lips in a ghost of a smile as Valkyrie looked at him in confusion. "I have often wondered what it would be like to bring a life into existence."

"I'm sure you would make a wonderful creator Prowl." Prowl ducked his head slightly in what Valkyrie guessed was embarrassment. It was the plain and simple truth though. She was sure Prowl would have handled her situation a lot better then she had. It had taken her quite awhile to control the fear, uncertainty, and frustration she had felt in the first few months since discovering she was with sparkling. She accredited that victory to a certain white and red mech. Her spark warmed as thoughts of her lover surfaced in her processor. Her sparkling gave one last nudge then seemed to calm down as if it too was basking in the fond feelings brought on by thoughts of Ratchet.

Prowl removed his hand and sat back on his heels with a wistful sigh. "Are you hoping for a femme or a mech?"

"I'll be happy as long as it's healthy. He hasn't said it out loud but I think Ratchet is hoping for a femme; don't ask me why though. Females are nothing but trouble if you ask me" Valkyrie said with a grin. It was a shame they'd have to wait to find out the gender. Sparklings got their genders assigned by their CPU's with their first upgrade which occurred almost immediately after birth. Valkyrie had been surprised when she read that in her study material. Apparently gender assignment was one of the many changes the sparkling would experience while it upgraded to adapt to it's new environment.

Valkyrie muttered as she struggled to stand back up. She cursed her extra weight and gratefully accepted Prowl's assistance. 'Take a good long look Prowl' she thought to herself. 'You wanna bring a life into the world? Well this is the not so pleasant part you'd have to go through to do it!' Her abdomen had not rounded like that of a pregnant human's would of over the last several months; instead, her entire torso had thickened and gotten larger on a whole. The way her frame had transformed to accommodate her growing sparkling had fascinated her at first but quickly turned to irritation as her movement became more limited, her energon demands grew ever higher, and of course the loss of her ability to transform into her alt mode. That last bit bothered her the most. For someone who had only been flying for a little less than a year she couldn't believe how much she missed it already. She sighed as she checked her internal chronometer and walked back to the map table. "Ok Prowl, breaks over. Let's finish this damn project before the other half comes a callin' and give us both an audio full for working too long."

___________________________________________________________________________

"Hand me that bundle of wires will ya" Wheeljack asked without looking up. Ratchet tossed the wires to Wheeljack from the other side of the protoform shell they were working on. "I wish Optimus would give us the ok to run em through the Allspark already. The 'cons are gettin' frisky again an we could use the additional help. Not to mention it would be more fun to upgrade these guys if they had their alt modes in place already. What do ya think Ratch?"

"I'm going to ask her to bond with me" Ratchet replied quietly as he leaned down to install a new circuit board in the protoform's arm.

"See? I knew you'd agree. Maybe if we asked Optimus to come down here in person to view the protoforms with their new upgrades and…and…" Wheeljack stopped his work on the shell and slowly looked up at Ratchet with wide optics. "You wanna run that by me one more time?"

"I said I am going to ask Valkyrie to bond with me. We'd have to wait until the sparkling is born of course; but I can at least ask her now."

"Bond?"

"Yes."

"With Valkyrie?"

"Yes."

"_Bond?!_"

"Yes Jack, I think we've established that part already. If I have to repeat myself one more time I may have to throw something at you."

"Are you sure?"

"You of all mechs should know I am more than capable of throwing something at someone without remorse." Ratchet grinned as Wheeljack gave a frustrated growl.

"This isn't something to joke about Ratchet! You know damned well what I meant. This is big…huge...I mean…do you…" His voice indicators flashed like strobe lights as he struggled to find the right words. "I hope yer not just doin' this because of the sparkling. Don't get me wrong now; I love ya both and would like nothin' more than to see you both happy; but are you _sure_ about this?"

Ratchet had jerked up to finally meet his friend's optics at the suggestion of bonding just for the sparkling's sake. "The idea has been floating around in my processor since before I knew Val was carrying. I am sure about this. She's the one Jack."

Wheeljack blinked and cocked his head to the side. "And what do you think Val will make of this? Humans have something similar called marriage; but from what I understand a marriage can be nullified; bonding…not so much."

"If that femme cares for me even half as much as I care for her she will say yes in a spark beat." Wheeljack gave Ratchet a flat stare and folded his arms across his chest. Ratchet sighed and gripped the side of the table that served as the protoform's berth. The mask he had set up to hide his nervousness and fear melted away. He should have known better than to try hiding something like this from his friend of countless vorns. "Primus Jack, what if she says no? I…I cannot function without her. It's as if she is already a part of my spark" he whispered as he looked down at the table.

Wheeljack walked around the table and placed an arm across the CMO's shoulders. "She'd have to be out of her processor to turn you down Ratchet." Ratchet nodded somberly and Wheeljack decided that it was past time to lighten the mood. "In fact, I have proof that she will say yes." Ratchet was likely to dismember him for this but Wheeljack just couldn't resist. "If her feelings for you didn't run that strong she would have left your ugly aft for me months ago." He jumped back just in time to dodge Ratchet's fist. "Violence won't change the fact that I am the better lookin' one!" he laughed as Ratchet chased him around the table.

"You fraggin' hypocrite! Not something to joke about my aft!" He grinned when Wheeljack lost his footing giving him the opportunity he needed to catch the faster mech. He shouted as he tackled the engineer sending them both crashing down the floor. Ratchet knew they looked like a bunch of overcharged younglings still stupid enough to think a wrestling match could prove who was right and who was wrong but he didn't care. They wrestled about in the lab causing destruction on a level with one of Wheeljack's inventions that decided to blow. Neither was able to pin the other and after awhile they found themselves lying on the lab floor staring up at the ceiling as their internal fans tried desperately to cool their systems.

Wheeljack tried to sit up but flopped back down with a weak chuckle. "We are getting too old for this."

"We? You are the older one."

"By two vorns!"

Ratchet chuckled then tilted his head back when he heard the lab doors open. He smiled as the upside down image of Valkyrie giving him a confused look greeted him. He rolled over and rested his chin on his forearms. "Well hello gorgeous, you're early."

"Prowl and I finished ahead of schedule" Valkyrie replied as she looked around the lab's half destroyed state with a raised optic ridge. "I am afraid to ask what you two have been up to."

Wheeljack waved at Valkyrie from the floor. "Hi Val! We were redecorating. What do ya think?"

"I'd have to say stick with your day job Jack" Valkyrie chuckled as she leaned against the wall.

"Everyone's a critic." Wheeljack managed to get to his feet and groaned as he rotated his left shoulder. "Dangit Ratch, I think ya knocked somethin' loose when you tried to put me in that arm bar." Valkyrie's optic ridges lowered as she frowned at him. "Uh, I meant when you helped me lift that heavy box of…you know I think I am just gonna go to the med bay and fix this up real quick."

Valkyrie watched Wheeljack quickly depart with suspicious optics. She turned back to Ratchet who was still watching her from the floor with a stupid looking smile. "Arm bar?"

"Come here."

"Ratchet I'll never be able to get back up if I join you down there. Even if I could I'm not sure I'd want to lay down on that. Who knows what's managed to work it's way into the floor of Wheeljack's lab."

"Oh fine" Ratchet pouted as he got to his feet. He strode over to his berthmate and pulled her into a gentle embrace. "How are the energon levels?" he asked as he rested his chevron against her crest.

"Your sparkling could use some after the exercise it got. It decided to play soccer with my insides today."

Ratchet pulled back slightly and raised his optic ridges in surprise. "You felt it move?" At Valkyrie's nod he smiled and brushed his fingers across her abdomen.

Valkyrie flinched slightly and gave Ratchet a little shove. "That tickles you aft."

"Sorry" Ratchet chuckled. "Let's get outta here. I stashed some energon in our quarters for you earlier." He placed a hand on the small of her back and walked her out of Wheeljack's lab. Upon entering their quarters Valkyrie sat down with a sigh on their berth and pulled her legs up to stretch out on her side. Ratchet drank in the sight before grabbing an energon cube and joined her on the berth. He thought it was funny when she compared her altered form to that of an aquatic mammal called a whale. Looking at her he only saw the breath taking femme that had captured his spark. As Valkyrie set her finished energon cube on the shelf next to their berth Ratchet gently pulled her back into his arms so that they faced each other. "I love you…so much" he whispered as he brushed a finger along her jaw.

Valkyrie rocked her cheek into the caress and half shuttered her optics. "I love you too you sentimental glitch" she grinned and awaited her lover's return banter. Her grin slid off her lips as Ratchet didn't tease back but just looked at her with a sober expression. "What's wrong?"

"An injured human female was literally dumped into my med bay and ends up capturing my affections. By some miracle of Primus, the feelings are returned. Yet another miracle is granted when through tragedy we are finally able to come together and our feelings continue to grow. My spark is filled with joy as a gift is allotted to me in the form of a sparkling. Now, I find myself wondering if Primus will grant this undeserving mech one more miracle."

"Ratchet…?"

"After our sparkling is born will you bond with me?" Ratchet was unable to read anything in Valkyrie's clear emerald optics as she studied him silently. His spark hummed nervously within it's chamber under that unwavering gaze. He wanted her to say something, anything, but at the same time was afraid of what she would say. After what seemed like an eternity she timidly placed a hand on his windshield and pressed her lips against his.

Valkyrie broke the kiss but kept close enough so that when she talked her lips brushed against Ratchet's. "My spark is yours" she breathed before capturing his lips again. Ratchet made a sound of utter rapture as he tightened his arms around her and melted into the kiss.

___________________________________________________________________________

Wheeljack tested his shoulder making sure he hadn't missed anything then replaced the protective armor that covered the joint. He wiped down the tools he had used and put them away before making for Ratchet's office. He sat in the chair behind Ratchet's desk and sighed heavily through his vents. He hoped things were going well with Ratchet and Valkyrie. He envied the two and what had formed between them. He hadn't realized how lonely he really was until he saw what Ratchet had. Wheeljack stretched an arm out across the desk and rested his mask covered cheek in the crook of his elbow. He blinked and looked up in surprise as an energon cube was placed in front of him.

"You know it's really nice of you to work as many hours as you do in the med bay so Valkyrie can spend more time with Ratchet. I thought maybe you could use some company to help your shift go by a little easier."

A smile grew behind Wheeljack's mask as he offered the other chair in the office to his thoughtful visitor.

*******Posted a few more fun pictures if you all wanna check them out at.....com/gallery/*******


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 32 – Injured**

"Mornin' Val!"

"Good morning Bluestreak" Valkyrie replied across the comm. line. "What can I do for ya?"

"Oh, I uh, was just wondering how you were doing and if you were um…are you busy?"

Valkyrie set her datapad down with a frown and gave the comm. line her full attention. "Why?" she asked suddenly suspicious.

"Is there any chance you could make your way out to the firing range?"

"Ratchet would kick my shiny metal aft if I went anywhere near the firing range this far into my pregnancy Blue."

"It's kinda important."

Valkyrie began tapping a finger on Ratchet's desk impatiently. "Ok, I'll bite, what is important?"

"Ironhide needs help with his cannon…again."

Valkyrie grinned as Ironhide's voice grumbled in the background of Bluestreak's comm.. Apparently it was not the weapons specialist's idea to call for assistance. "Well that's stating the obvious Blue. I've been telling that old rust bucket he's been in need of _help_ for over a year now."

"I heard that!" Ironhide yelled back across the line.

"So what's wrong with the guns?"

"We tried boosting the power to Ironhide's left cannon right? And it worked too! Took out a huge wall of rock an everything! Anyways, the cannon jammed up tight an we can't stop the energy build up. It's been building up for over ten minutes now and I think Ironhide is startin' to feel a bit of pain, not that he'd admit it, but…"

"Alright, alright, alright! Calm down Blue. I'm on my way." Valkyrie cut the comm. line and drew a hand across her optics. Ratchet and Wheeljack were still out patching up Mirage and Hoist after their unfortunate run in with a rockslide; which left only her to deal with this. Valkyrie struggled to lift her heavy frame from her chair and cursed when another problem came to light. 'How the hell am I supposed to even get out there?!' she thought to herself. She hadn't been able to transform for months now due to the sparkling; so she couldn't fly to the firing range. Walking was out of the question as Ironhide would probably look like a burnt out toaster oven by the time she got there. "What I need… is a ride."

Fifteen minutes later Valkyrie found herself blinking into the bright sunlight as she stepped from Optimus Prime's trailer. Ironhide and Bluestreak looked at her and Optimus in utter mortification. Apparently the slight embarrassment she had felt over having to ask their commander for a lift was nothing compared to what these two were feeling by the looks on their face plates.

"You coulda warned us Prime was comin' too" Ironhide muttered under his breath when Valkyrie was close enough.

Valkyrie kneeled beside Ironhide and shook her head while removing the outer plating of the overheating cannon. "And how else was I supposed to get out here to fix your broken aft? I'm not exactly the most mobile of Autobots at the moment in case you hadn't fragging noticed. Optimus was the only one available who is big enough to transport me. So quit your whining, sit still, and let me do my oh so _thankless_ job."

"I'm sure what Ironhide meant to say was thank you for coming Valkyrie. We know it was an inconvenience and we really appreciate it" Bluestreak said quickly before Ironhide could reply.

"How is he?" Optimus inquired while peeking over Valkyrie's shoulder with amused optics.

"Well it looks like our Wheeljack wannabe was trying to blow himself up. His cannon is overheating and since genius here can't fire, the energy building up inside has nowhere to go." Valkyrie sat back on her heels pondering a solution for a moment before reaching into the inner workings of the cannon. "If the pressure isn't already beyond a little rerouting I can try to give the pent up energy a new path to follow…" Valkyrie yelped and yanked her hands back as electricity began arcing violently around the weapon specialist's extremity. "Well shit, so much for that idea" she muttered. "Optimus, now might be a good time to grab Blue here and take some cover." The mechs in question looked down at her with worried expressions and appeared ready to argue. "This is a medical emergency which puts me in charge, so it's my way or the highway. Right now my way says get the frag behind some cover!! **Now move it!!**" Optimus let out a short bark of a laugh then grabbed Bluestreak and jogged for cover. Valkyrie calmly looked into Ironhide's shocked optics and deployed her energon blade. The grizzled old warrior glanced at the blade then sighed nodding grimly in understanding.

"Do it."

With one swift motion Valkyrie sliced through the cannon effectively amputating it from Ironhide's arm. She quickly picked up the now glowing weapon and threw it away from her comrades with all her might. A bright white light overpowered her optics a second later followed by the concussion of an explosion. 'If this doesn't kill me, Ratchet will' was her last thought before her body slammed into something solid.

___________________________________________________________________________

"What's taking so long?"

Wheeljack stood from where he was attaching Hoist's tow cable to Mirage's alt form. "Gimme a break Ratch! Mirage is a formula one racer; they're not exactly tow friendly." Mirage muttered something under his breath earning himself an apologetic pat on his hood. "No offense there Mirage."

Ratchet smirked and made a last minute adjustment to Hoist's engine before closing the mechanic's hood. Rather than fixing both mechs in the field, Ratchet and Wheeljack had opted to concentrate their efforts on Hoist and then use his tow truck alt mode to bring Mirage back to base. Wheeljack straightened back up from Hoist's tow mechanism and gave the human gesture of a thumbs up. Ratchet transformed and cautiously led the others down the trail keeping a sharp optic open for anymore rockslides. He relaxed as his wheels touched down on solid pavement and picked up the pace eager to return to base; and Valkyrie. He grew anxious when forced to be separated from her for any period of time. The feelings got worse as the projected birth date of their sparkling rapidly approached.

"Hey, that looks like Bluestreak!"

Ratchet swerved slightly in surprise at Wheeljack's shout and looked off to where the Lancia's sensors were focused. A grey Datsun came into view approaching at dangerous speeds. Ratchet attempted to establish a comm. line with the gunner then slowed to a stop when there was no reply. "Can anyone get a line with him? I'm getting nothing." When everyone else's attempts failed he transformed and instinctively placed himself protectively in front of his patients.

Bluestreak transformed before coming to a stop sending sparks and torn up asphalt skittering across the waiting mechs' frames. "Ratchet! Thank Primus I found you! I would of tried to send word to divert you but the EMP from the explosion knocked out our comm.! I was starting to worry that we'd never find you and…"

Ratchet stopped picking bits of asphalt from his frame and looked up sharply. "Explosion? What explosion?" Bluestreak made a mournful sound and wilted under his stare causing a chill in his spark.

"There was an accident at the firing range and…and…and…Ratchet, Val is hurt" Bluestreak finished in a near whisper.

"Get Hoist and Mirage back to base." Ratchet transformed without waiting for a reply from Wheeljack and took off for the firing range. He had his engine pushed well into the red by the time Bluestreak caught up with him. "Tell me everything Bluestreak!" he shouted. "Everything!"

___________________________________________________________________________

Ironhide wiped at a thin stream of energon that trickled from between Valkyrie's parted lips with his good hand. He jerked back in surprise when the femme gave a weak cough and unshuttered dim optics. "Welcome back."

"How long was I out this time?"

"Few minutes. How ya feelin?"

"Fan-fraggin-tastic. From the error messages I keep getting I think half my CPU merged with those rocks I got slammed into. Oh stop looking at me like a kicked puppy; It's not like you knew this was gonna happen."

Ironhide helped Valkyrie into a more comfortable position leaning against his frame and sighed. "Was still my fault. I'm more'n old enough t'know better. Messin' with the adjustments Jack's made on my cannons is just askin' for trouble."

"Have Bluestreak or Optimus returned?" Valkyrie inquired hoping to divert Ironhide's guilt.

"Nope. If Blue doesn't find the Doc at his last known location, Prime'll find em at base or will at least have access to a workin' comm. Either way we'll get yer other half out here an we'll get everythin fixed an..." Ironhide cut off as Valkyrie whimpered and tensed against him. "Val? Darlin' what's wrong?"

"Errrrrrrrrrror with the carrying program. Oh God…the sparkling-ing. Ironhide I….I….I need help!" Valkyrie kicked her legs as a sharp pain began radiating from her abdomen. "Ironhide…help mmmmmmmmmme."

Ironhide tried activating his broken comm. in vain while holding Valkyrie down with his good arm. "Just hold on girl; I'm tryin' ta reach the others. Primus, please. Work damn you!" He gave up on the comm. line and looked down at Valkyrie's twitching frame. "We gotta just wait for the Doc! Prime an Blue'll find em! Just… just hold on!"

Valkyrie tossed her head back and forth violently. "Can-an-an not wait. You have to get it out n-now." Ironhide widened his optics and shook his head in denial. "Please...dont…lllllet it die. Take it out. Take it out nnnnnnnnnnow!"

Ironhide felt like his spark was being torn in two. He laid the twitching femme down on the ground and knelt over her. "No other way?" he asked quietly.

"Please…tell that fraggerrrr…I'm sorry. Tell him I love…love him."

Ironhide shook his head sadly and placed a feather light kiss on Valkyrie's forehead as he placed a knee on her cockpit to hold her down. "Activate yer blade darlin'." He winced as Valkyrie managed to deploy the energon blade from her wrist. He gripped her forearm just above the blade and guided it over to her abdomen. "Primus, forgive me" he whispered as he lowered the blade.

___________________________________________________________________________

Bluestreak slammed on his breaks when he caught the sound of Ratchet transforming behind him. He transformed and turned to find the CMO picking himself up from where he had landed as a result of transforming without slowing down first. Bluestreak started to ask why they stopped when the medic abruptly clutched at his chest and screamed. He ran over to Ratchet and gave the medic a shake by his shoulders. "Ratchet! Ratchet what's going on?! What's wrong?!" The scream stopped sharply and Ratchet pitched forward. Bluestreak barely caught the larger mech before he hit the ground and slowly lowered him the rest of the way. "Ratchet? Is…is it Valkyrie?" he asked suddenly fearful that the medics had bonded in secret and fearing the worst.

"No. Not Valkyrie" Ratchet panted into the Datsun's arms. "There is no bond to feel anything from her." He groaned as he forced himself into a seated position and rubbed at his chest plates. 'Primus! That fragging hurt!'he thought to himself. The pain that had gripped his spark a few moments ago was like nothing he'd ever felt before.

"Ok, then what happened? You nearly scared me into total shutdown when you screamed like that. Primus, I don't think I've ever heard anyone scream like that before. I'm surprised your vocals didn't short out. Are you in pain? Are you hurt somewhere?"

Ratchet stopped listening to Bluestreak's rambling as he tried to figure out exactly what _did_ happen to him. His optics widened and his still aching spark sank when a possible answer surfaced. "I don't have a bond with her…" he whispered cutting Bluestreak off. "...but maybe with the sparkling…" He looked up and saw the gunner's optics widen with fear mirroring what his own must look like. "Help me up so I can get back into alt mode. I need to get to her. I need to get to them. Now!"


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 33 - Offline**

Optimus Prime entered the code to his office door and glanced over his shoulder as he sensed another's presence. "Did you need something Prowl?" The barely perceptible twitch to the other's door wings was enough of an answer. "I see." He motioned for the tactician to follow him into his office. Optimus sighed heavily as he took a seat behind his desk and waited for Prowl to settle in the chair across from him. "We failed." Prowl's optics widened in alarm. "Calm down Prowl. She still functions."

"Was the Allspark shard not yet strong enough to handle the task? It should have repaired her."

Optimus leaned back and rubbed a hand across his optics. "Valkyrie's injuries were repaired days ago by Ratchet and Wheeljack. Whatever is keeping her offline is something beyond our control which is why we made today's attempt with the shard."

"And yet it failed; she is still offline." Prowl frowned. "I do not understand sir."

"The Allspark can create life and repair many forms of damage. Apparently this is something it cannot heal. We've never really had a complete understanding of the Allspark's abilities. Or perhaps the shard has limits that the original Allspark did not have."

Prowl's door wings wilted slightly. "What of the sparkling?"

Optimus allowed himself a small smile. "Despite the premature and traumatic berth, the sparkling thrives. It successfully completed it's first upgrade. I will not reveal more than that at this time. That is up to it's creators."

________________________________________________________________________

Everything complimented her frame; from the helicopter tail rotors at her knees to the folded propeller blades poking over her shoulders. Even the red, white, and black paint covering the various parts of her alt mode suited her. He had never thought her ugly as a human, far from it; but as a cybertronian, she was beautiful. "Please open your optics." Ratchet's intakes hitched slightly as traced his fingers alongside Valkyrie's cheek. "Please?"

A soft whimpering sound brought his attention away from the offline form of his berthmate and to the pale sparkling cradled in his other arm. Green optics so much like her femme creator's unshuttered and looked up at him. "Good morning little one" he whispered. He brought his free hand over to the sparkling and smiled when she latched onto a finger with a happy chirp.

"Awwww, that is so _cute!_"

Ratchet glared at Wheeljack as the Lancia walked up to Valkyrie's repair berth. "Call me cute again and even my sparkling's presence won't save you."

Wheeljack shook his head in mock sorrow. "And here I thought bein' a creator to a little femme would calm down some of your homicidal tendencies."

"Never. She must be shown how to put you in your place." The sparkling gave another chirp as if to agree.

"Great, she's takin' your side already." Wheeljack hovered his hand over the large weld decorating Valkyrie's abdominal plates. "You know, all things considered, Ironhide did a pretty good job of this."

"Putting aside the fact that he was the cause of the accident to begin with; his actions afterwards saved both of them" Ratchet replied softly as he brushed a feather light kiss across the sparkling's forehead. "And for that I am forever grateful."

"You sure I can't use the term cute?"

Ratchet sent a small huff of warm air through his vents tickling the sparkling and sending her into a fit of clicks and chirps. "Oh fine, but only if there is no one else around."

"Guess I can function with that arrangement." Wheeljack stepped around the repair berth to get a better look at the sparkling but maintained some distance so as not to upset Ratchet. The over protective programming of a creator during the sparkling stage of it's creation was not something to take lightly. Best friends they may be, but even at this distance Wheeljack could see Ratchet's optics narrow and track his every move. Valkyrie would likely be worse when she onlined; femme creators always were. "So have you decided on her designation yet?"

Ratchet raised his head and looked back over at Valkyrie. "I am waiting for Val; we both are."

Wheeljack pulled up a chair and sat down with his arms draped across his legs. "So…what's it like?"

"What's what like?" Ratchet replied distractedly as he smiled down at his sparkling again who was now gnawing on the finger she'd captured earlier.

"Bein' a creator; you know, the concept of your spark bein' responsible for creatin' a new life? That thing that's supposed to be tied with bonding as the greatest feelin' in the known universe?"

Feeling the sparkling give a nudge through their bond, Ratchet carefully placed her on Valkyrie's chassis. She curled up over her femme creator's spark chamber and yawned before shuttering her optics falling into recharge. "There are no words, pictures, or code that could ever describe it Jack."

Wheeljack stood and pushed his chair towards Ratchet who accepted it with a sad smile. The CMO sat down and silently watched his sparkling recharge with his mate. Wheeljack turned away unable to watch and retreated to his lab.

________________________________________________________________________

Clang!

"Eighty two." Wheeljack straightened on his stool and put another washer on the work table. He placed the washer on it's edge, ducked down to aim, and flicked his finger.

Clang!

The washer hit the inside rim of the bucket on the far side of the work table and fell inside. "Eighty three." Wheeljack repeated the set up and was about to flick number eighty four when he caught the faint sound of a door opening.

Clang!

"Eighty four. This had better be important."

"Not really...well I-I guess it could be."

Wheeljack froze in the process of picking up another washer. "Oh?" His optics shuttered as a familiar pair of arms wrapped around his middle and a heavy weight settled against his back.

"How long have you been sitting here flicking washers?"

"I dunno. Tried tinkering with a project after leavin' the med bay but just couldn't…I had too much on my processor."

"Wanna talk 'bout it?"

"Now that's a role reversal if I've ever heard one." Wheeljack leaned back into the embrace and sighed. "Had to leave. It was breakin' my spark watchin' them. I can't even begin to imagine what Ratchet's goin' through. To be so happy 'bout the sparkling, but unable to share it with his mate. He's been through so much since this _Pit_ of a war. We all have. It's not fair!"

"Everything will be ok once Val onlines; you'll see."

"Ratchet and I fixed what we could. We even tried…_other_ methods today. Her condition remains the same."

"You're not giving yourself or Ratchet enough credit. With the best medic and a _brilliant engineer_ on the job, I've no doubt that Valkyrie will wake feelin' better than she did before the…the accident."

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Wheeljack hummed softly when the arms tightened slightly around his chassis. There was comfort in those arms as well as the desire to be comforted. "Stay with me tonight" he whispered. He felt the warm metal against his back tense. Unshuttering his optics Wheeljack turned his head to meet those of his current _backpack_. "Please. I don't want to be alone; not tonight."

________________________________________________________________________

Top of his class, graduated with honors, countless vorns of experience, risen to the chief medical officer under Prime himself; in other words, he was supposed to be the best medic Cybertron had to offer. None of these factors registered as Ratchet transformed and dropped to his knees in a puddle of his mate's energon. Someone was trying to talk to him; whether it was Ironhide or Bluestreak didn't matter as his CPU failed to designate meaning to their words. A scan he didn't remember initiating revealed CPU damage, heavy energon loss from multiple severed energon lines, frame and structural damage he'd expect to find on the twins after a jet judo attempt, and…carrier failure. Something touched his shoulder and Ratchet tore his optics away from the surreal image of the heavily damaged femme. Ironhide pulled his only functioning hand back and gently scooped something from the crook of his injured arm. Ratchet felt every piece of machinery within his frame freeze as Ironhide placed a tiny energon covered form in his hands. On instinct, he reached out to the sparkling through a bond that was supposed to be there as one of it's creators. He wrenched his head back with a spark shattering scream of one who had lost everything.

Ratchet woke with a start his optics immediately seeking out his sparkling. He relaxed slightly upon finding her still curled up on Valkyrie's chest. He gave his head a shake in an attempt to clear his processor of his latest altered memory echo, something akin to what humans called a nightmare. A quick scan of both Valkyrie's and the sparkling's systems revealed that everything was as it was before he fell into recharge. He stood and placed a hand atop Valkyrie's crest. "Some great medic I am" Ratchet whispered. "Why can't I fix you Val? What am I missing?" He turned his head as their sparkling shifted starting to wake up. When her optics met his she clicked and curled her tiny fingers over the edge of Valkyrie's cockpit. "I know how you feel. I wouldn't want to let go either." He straightened with a frown as a thought occurred to him. "You know, you are the quietest sparkling I've ever encountered. You haven't done anything over a whimper, chirp, or click." His frown deepened. "Not a _single_ cry." He glanced back and forth between the sparkling and his mate as an idea formed in his processor. He gently wrapped his hands around the sparkling and made to pick her up but not enough so that the sparkling's fingers would be removed from Valkyrie's torso. As expected, the sparkling began to whimper and tightened her grip. "Come on little one, you are going to have to do better than that."

The sparkling squirmed in her mech creator's hands. What was he doing? She did not tell him across their bond that she wanted to be held or fed. He had never done this before. She wanted to stay with her femme creator! She began to panic when he raised her a little more and her fingers started to lose their grip. She gave up simple whimpering and began to cry.

Ratchet winced at the sound of his sparkling crying. Every part of him wanted to stop his actions and comfort his creation; to assure her that she was safe. 'No! If this is going to work she has to be distressed.' He forced himself to pull the sparkling back until only one hand still maintained it's grip. The sparkling's cry turned into a panic stricken wail. That was when he felt it; a change in the bond as if the sparkling's contact was being diverted. "That's it. Call to her." Ratchet had a split second to register shock at Valkyrie's movement before a fist slammed into his jaw.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 34 - Online**

*Beep*

"…."

*Beep* *Beep*

"Mmmgh."

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

Wheeljack groaned and rolled onto his back. "Five more minutes."

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

"Hey, hey wake up."

"I don't wanna."

"Yeah but, your comm. keeps goin' off. What if it's important? I mean, if it wasn't, whoever was trying to get a hold of you would have given up by now, right?"

Wheeljack draped an arm across his optics and briefly entertained the idea of removing his comm. unit and throwing it across the room as the device continued it's assault of beeps refusing to be ignored. "Alright, alright, alright. I'm up." Wheeljack sighed dramatically and onlined his comm. unit accepting the incoming line. "Whaaaat?"

*Wheeljack! Where have you been?!*

Wheeljack slid his arm off his face and unshuttered an optic. "Ratchet?"

*Get your aft over here _now_.*

Wheeljack unshuttered his other optic and sat up leaning on his elbows. "What's goin'…?"

*Valkyrie is online.*

Wheeljack flashed his voice indicators brightly in excitement. "Ratch! That's-that's wonderful news!"

*Yes. Wonderful. Med bay. Now.*

Wheeljack blinked as the comm. line cut off abruptly. He jumped off the berth and nearly fell surprising the mech whose legs had been intertwined with his. Wheeljack grabbed his mask then leaned over and captured Bluestreak's lips in a heated kiss. "She's online" he laughed as he pulled away from the young Datsun's shocked smile and quickly departed his quarters. He ran into the med bay and yelped as a hand grabbed onto his arm harshly pulling him down behind a repair berth. He sensed more than saw something heavy slam into the wall mere inches from where he had been standing a second ago. Wheeljack turned wide optics to Ratchet as the medic released his grip on his arm. "Ratchet? What in the name of Primus is goin' on?!" He tilted his head in confusion getting another look at the other mech. "And what happened to your jaw?!"

Ratchet smirked then winced at the pain it brought to his dented face plates. "She has a Pit of a throwing arm…and an even worse left hook" he finished with a light touch to his injured jaw.

Wheeljack raised an optic ridge. "Exactly what did you do?"

"I uh, sort of let the sparkling get distressed enough to where she called Valkyrie through their bond. The over protective creator programming was strong enough to override whatever was keeping her offline."

Wheeljack smacked a hand upside his helm. "Now why didn't I think of that? That was ingenious Ratchet!"

"Except now she appears to be stuck in over protective mode."

"Which is why you called me over huh?"

Ratchet shrugged sheepishly. "Yup."

"So, now what?"

Ratchet frowned back at the repair berth they were using as a shield as if he could see his mate and sparkling through it's mass. "Well, if we can get close enough to her repair berth to hit the automatic stasis controls…we might be able to reset her systems."

Wheeljack glanced over at the object that Valkyrie had thrown at him. He gulped at the ruined piece of solid metal that Valkyrie had apparently ripped off her repair berth. "Get close enough…riiiiiiight. You have fun doing that."

"Come on Jack. If we both move at the same time to divide her attention and use the other repair berths and equipment as shielding, we can do this. First one close enough activates the controls."

Wheeljack took a deep breath through his intakes. 'I'm gonna die' Wheeljack thought to himself. "Alright, let's do this, on the count of three?"

Ratchet nodded. "On three."

Wheeljack turned around and crouched by the opposite corner of the repair berth. "Ok…one…"

"Three!" Ratchet yelled as he shoved Wheeljack then took off around the other corner.

Wheeljack shouted in surprise as he stumbled for footing and sprinted to the next closest repair berth. He reached the berth just as something smashed into the floor behind him. "Ratchet! You aft! Some friend you are!" An evil chuckle answered him from a few repair berths down. Wheeljack muttered and cautiously peeked around the corner of the repair berth. Saying a silent prayer to Primus, he sprinted for the next berth.

The two mechs continued with this tactic until they both reached cover adjacent to Valkyrie's repair berth. Wheeljack carefully looked around the corner of the repair berth he was kneeling behind and made optic contact with Ratchet who was using an equipment cabinet as his cover. Ratchet nodded at him and held up three fingers. Wheeljack narrowed his optics suspiciously remembering what happened the last time they had tried the three count rush. He started to shake his head in reply when suddenly Ratchet's optics widened in alarm. The repair berth shifted slightly against Wheeljack and the sound of something moving him above reached his audios. The Lancia made a tiny whimper sound and looked up knowing what he would find. Valkyrie crouched down on the repair berth she had just leapt onto and glared over the edge at Wheeljack. He wiggled his fingers up at the femme in a nervous hello. Her optics glowed a bright white and she hissed dangerously through clenched dental plating in response. Wheeljack tensed at the violence that was about to be unleashed upon him when suddenly the femme's optics went completely dark and she collapsed onto the berth. Wheeljack quickly reached out in surprise and caught the once hidden sparkling that fell from the femme's limp arm. He smiled at the tiny pale infant who blinked large green optics at him in quiet fascination. A throat clearing pulled his attention away from the sparkling and he quickly stood to gently hand the sparkling over to Ratchet. Ratchet cradled the sparkling in his arms and gave a slight nod in thanks. Wheeljack glanced over at the offline femme sprawled over top the repair berth and sighed in relief. "Thought I was a goner."

"Almost. You managed to hold her attention just long enough for me to make it over and activate the auto stasis." Ratchet readjusted the sparkling over to one arm and used his now free hand to type a few commands into the repair berth's panel. "Now let's just hope it was enough to reset her."

Valkyrie onlined her optics and lowered her optic ridges in confusion as she noted her awkward face down position and the view of the medic bay floor below her. She winced at a slight pain tugging at her midsection as she attempted to push herself up. Her wince turned to a frown at realizing she was too weak to do more than lift herself halfway. She blinked as she caught sight of Wheeljack staring at her with fearful optics several feet away. "Jack?"

Wheeljack took a timid step forward but remained tense in case he had to jump for cover. "Heya Val…you uh…you ok?"

Valkyrie tried to push herself up further and ended up belly flopping back down to the repair berth. "Ow" she managed in a pitiful croak.

"Careful love, you've still got a lot of healing to do."

Valkyrie sighed at the sound of Ratchet's voice knowing that she was probably in for a lecture for whatever had landed her in his medbay. "Ok, what happened? What part of me got hurt? And what stupid careless activity am I apologizing for this time?" She groaned as she was gently moved to a better position with her back to the repair berth. Wheeljack patted her shoulder then moved aside as Ratchet stepped into view. Valkyrie's optics turned from confused at her mate's lack of response to utter shock when she saw what lay cradled in his arms. She look down at her abdominal plating and gasped at the weld scar then whipped her optics back to her mate and what she could only guess was their sparkling. Memory came crashing back like a tidal wave. She gasped again when 'something' seemed to tug at her chest from the inside and realized that it was the sparkling reaching through the bond she'd read about.

Ratchet smiled down at Valkyrie ignoring the pain in his jaw and carefully placed the sparkling on her torso. The sparkling curled it's tiny fingers over the edge of Valkyrie's cockpit and chirped happily. Valkyrie raised a shaking hand and gently brushed her fingers along the sparkling's face and smiled as the infant half shuttered it's optics and made a purring sound. "She's been looking forward to meeting you."

"She" Valkyrie repeated in a whisper then released a shuddering breath.

"Well…she for now. You two need to give her a designation" Wheeljack chuckled.

Valkyrie sighed happily and gave a small nod. "I actually had one in mind if it meets the approval of 'daddy' here." Ratchet raised an optic ridge in question. "Well you didn't offer any suggestions at possible names so I did some thinking. You all seem to choose names that tend to represent or mean a lot to you so I found something that would be fitting for a daughter of the famous 'Hatchet' in case we had a femme. I dunno, I thought Crescent would be a good name."

Wheeljack cocked his head towards Ratchet with a mischievous gleam in his optic. "Pretty name and very fitting; but you're not uh…worried that boomerang head might be tempted to throw something named after a wrench? I mean all it takes is one of the twins to hit a nerve and then there goes the sparkling flying across the med b…"

Ratchet smacked Wheeljack upside the back of his helm without looking at him and smiled at his mate. He leaned down to press a gentle kiss on her forehead then moved down to the do the same with his sparkling. "A very pretty name."

*****If you can dodge a repair berth, you can dodge a dodgeball.*****

**-Sorry, couldn't resist, had to add that.**

**-Oh yeah, Bluestreak, yeah, no big surprise there huh?**

**-And since Fanfic won't let me post the addy here, check my profile for the addy to the funniest Transformers clip I've ever seen.**


	14. Chapter 14

In an attempt to break through the writer's block I am experiencing with this story, I re-read 'Doctors and Patients' from start to finish the other day. Holy crap; there are an ass load of mistakes, things that just don't mesh, and well… overall there are just some things I'd like to change/take in another direction. I respect your all's opinions so I am asking this first. How pissed off would you all be if I re-wrote this fic? It wouldn't be a COMPLETE overhaul, but there would be some hefty changes. I gotta be honest with ya folks, without the changes I'm really not all that sure how much further I can take this story.

*Takes cover behind her patrol car*

Ok, let me know what you all think. Please be honest, I can take it. 


End file.
